Drone launched from Lebanon toward Netanyahu residence in central Israel

Israel said a drone targeted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence in Caesarea on Saturday, after the military reported a drone from Lebanon had "hit a structure" in the central Israeli town.

"A UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) was launched toward the prime minister's residence in Caesarea. The prime minister and his wife were not at the location, and there were no injuries in the incident," Netanyahu's office said in a statement.

It was not immediately clear whether the structure reported hit by the military earlier was his private residence.

The military said it was investigating the incident that apparently saw several failures of Israel’s warning system.

No warning sirens went off in the Caesarea area , Israeli media reported.

Israel's Channel 12 said Tel Aviv has now accused Iran of an "assassination attempt" on Netanyahu, quoting a senior official

The military said three drones had been fired from Lebanon on Saturday and it had intercepted two.

Other projectiles were also fired from Lebanon into northern Israel, with sirens sounding across the area at regular intervals. One of the projectiles hit the Haifa area, a frequent target of Hezbollah's.

The attack on Netanyahu's residence comes one day after Hezbollah said it would embark on a "new phase of escalation" against Israel, in the aftermath of the killing of Hamas's leader in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar.

In Lebanon, authorities said two people were killed in an Israeli strike on Saturday in Jounieh, north of Beirut, in the first strike on the area since Israel began exchanging cross-border fire with Hezbollah last year, one day after the war in Gaza started on October 7 2023.

The health ministry said an "Israeli enemy raid" hit a car in Jounieh, with Lebanese state media saying the attack occurred on a key highway linking the capital to the country's north.

Israel began intensifying its attacks in Lebanon in late September, before launching a ground invasion on October 1.

At least 2,418 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israel since October last year.

On Friday, the Israeli military said it had destroyed Hezbollah's regional command centre with an air strike.