Smoke rises from explosions in the southern Lebanese village of Odessa as Israel Defense Forces strike Hezbollah positions after approximately 180 projectiles fired by Hezbollah crossed from Lebanon into Israel, including three that targeted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in Caesarea. Photo by Atef Safadi/EPA-EFE
Oct. 19 (UPI) — Hezbollah targeted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s home in Caesarea early Saturday morning with three explosive drones, two of which were destroyed while the third hit the house.
“The Prime Minister and his wife were not at the residence as the time of the attack and there were no casualties,” a spokesperson for Netanyahu said in a statement.
The drones were among 180 projectiles launched by Hezbollah Saturday morning the Israel Defense Forces said.
The aerial attack killed a 50-year-old man who was struck by shrapnel while inside his vehicle in northern Israel and injured four others.
The Gaza Health Ministry reported IDF attacks on hospitals in northern Gaza Saturday.
The IDF killed at least three people at three hospitals in northern Gaza while firing on them with small arms and artillery, Gaza hospitals Director Munir al-Bursh told the Washington Post.
The Gaza Health Ministry said one person died during an attack on the entrance to the Kamal Adwan Hospital while two others died when the Indonesian Hospital was besieged and lost its power.
IDF forces also targeted the al-Awda Hospital.
The United Nations reported more than 20,000 Gazans fled Jablaya in northern Gaza as the IDF intensified its operations there.
IDF forces also made their deepest penetration into southern Lebanon since targeting Hezbollah militants there at the end of September.
The IDF’s 98th Division raided a Hezbollah headquarters in the “deepest area IDF forces have operated so far in ground operations in Lebanon.”
The ground force is targeting and destroying “terrorist infrastructures” while “eliminating terrorists and locating many weapons,” the IDF said.
Saturday’s actions occured after an autopsy on former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar showed he was killed by a bullet that struck his head during an unexpected encounter with IDF forces in Rafah in southern Gaza on Wednesday, Israel national forensic institute Director Dr. Chen Kugel told the New York Times on Friday.
Kugel said Sinwar had suffered several serious wounds caused by shrapnel from either a small missile or a round fired by a tank that “smashed”one of his forearms.
Kugel supervised Sinwar’s autopsy and said the Israeli military took possession of his body afterward.
