Netanyahu’s House Bombed 2nd Time in a Month

CROSSFIREARABIA – It’s a second attack on the private residence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in less than a month.

The Saturday night attack through two flash bombs landed in the courtyard of Netanyahu house in Caesarea is being described as a serious incident by Shabak and the Israeli police who quickly opened up an investigation.

The attack is widely trending on the social media with the official line being that Netanyahu and his wife were not in the house at the time and there was little damage.

The incident is being treated as “domestic” with three people arrested and under investigation with reactions  from the leader of the opposition Yair Lapid and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. They all described the attack on Netanyahu’s residence as “redline” but it is difficult to see what they would do about it.

Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth said one of the arrested suspects is a senior reserve officer, a brigadier general, who has been active in protests against Netanyahu’s government over the past two years according to Anadolu.

The first attack on Netanyahu’s house in Caesarea was made on 19 October through a drone attack launched from Lebanon targeted Netanyahu’s home in Caesarea claimed by Hezbollah. The attack was described as so precise that it landed in Netanyahu’s bedroom.

This time news reports suggest that the flash bombs either landed in the garden and/or the courtyard of the house.

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Israel’s Inside Fight

Israel’s Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, attacks War Minister Gallant: “For months, I’ve urged the Prime Minister to dismiss him. The decision must be made in the North, and Gallant is not the right person to lead.”

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Where do Israeli Leaders Come From?

The current Israeli leaders come from everywhere around the world but not from these indigenous lands: Collectively termed Palestine! Theses immigrants have no connection to these territories, yet they are forcing themselves here as if they are the owners while colonizing its real people which include Muslims, Christians and Jews.

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Top Israeli Officers Say Cabinet Incites Escalation on West Bank

Senior Israeli military officers have accused the country’s political leadership of inciting escalation in the occupied West Bank.

The officers said far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich are “directly responsible” for the rise in violence in the occupied territory, warning that the situation could spiral into a full-blown uprising, with many young Palestinians already facing unemployment and lack of opportunities.

“We are trying to prevent the population from fully joining the violence,” a military officer told Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, adding that the ongoing Israeli restrictions have exacerbated tensions in the area.

Attacks on Palestinians by illegal Israeli settlers also push young Palestinians to join armed groups in the West Bank, the daily warned.

“This situation can’t continue. We are on the verge of a major explosion in Judea and Samaria (West Bank),” another senior military officer said.

The Israeli officers warned that provocations by government officials as Ben-Gvir’s intrusions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque and his attempts to allow Jewish prayers at the flashpoint site risk inflaming tensions in the West Bank and the whole Arab world.

Last week, the Israeli army launched its largest military operation in the northern West Bank in two decades, killing at least 40 people and causing massive destruction in the area.

Tensions have intensified throughout the occupied West Bank as Israel persists in its offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed over 40,900 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since last Oct. 7.

At least 692 individuals have since been killed and more than 5,700 injured by Israeli gunfire in the occupied West Bank since that time, according to the Health Ministry.

The escalation follows a significant ruling by the International Court of Justice on July 19, which declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian territories unlawful and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem according to Anadolu.

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Borrell Calls For Possible EU Sanctions Against Israeli Ministers

The EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said, Thursday, he asked the bloc members if they want to impose sanctions on some Israeli ministers for “hate messages” against Palestinians in ciolation of international law.

At the start of a European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels, Borrell told reporters that he has begun asking EU member states “if they consider [it]  appropriate to include in our list of sanctions some Israeli ministers [who] have been engaged in  unacceptable hate messages against Palestinians and proposing things that clearly go against international law”.

Borrell did not name any of the Israeli ministers to whom he was referring or specify which messages he had in mind according to the Quds News Network.

In recent weeks, he has publicly criticized National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for statements he has described as “sinister” and “an incitement to war crimes” as they have publicly called for Israel to expand illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and push more Palestinians out of Gaza.

Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister Petra De Sutter said she will offer full support for the imposition of sanctions on Ben-Gvir and Smotrich during the meeting.

“Genocidal policies and statements should not go unpunished,” she said in a post on X.

Ireland, one of the EU’s most pro-Palestinian members said, Thursday, it backed Borrell’s suggestion.

“We will be supporting Josep Borrell’s recommendation for sanctions in respect of settler organizations in the West Bank who are facilitating [the] expansion of settlements and also to Israeli ministers,” Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin told reporters as he arrived at the Brussels meeting.

Smotrich has previously caused outrage, including from the EU, for saying that “it might be justified and moral” to starve the two million Palestinians in Gaza as well as for calling for the expulsion of Palestinians from the coastal enclave.

Ben-Gvir has also drawn anger for advocating the resettlement of Palestinians outside Gaza and for saying his right to move around the occupied West Bank outweighed those of the Palestinians living there. The extremist minister also called for an increase in the military pressure and starving people as the only way to release Israeli prisoners.

Following Borrell’s remarks, Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz, said his government is  “now working with our friends in Europe to prevent the adoption of resolutions against Israel” at the meeting of EU’s top diplomats.

“The message we are conveying is clear: In a reality where Israel is faced with the threats of Iran and its proxy terrorist organizations – the free world must stand by Israel, and not act against it,” he wrote on X.

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