According to Channel 12 news, Netanyahu has told colleagues that he was instructed to use the better-protected basement-level room and to avoid being in known “permanent places”, due to ongoing concerns about aerial attacks after a Hezbollah drone struck his home in Caesarea last month.
The explosive drone, launched from Lebanon on October 19 by Hezbollah, detonated at Netanyahu’s home when he was not present, and it smashed — though it did not penetrate — a bedroom window, causing minor damage.
The Sunday report noted that the new security protocols may explain why cabinet meetings have lately been held in changing locations, and why the wedding of Netanyahu’s son Avner has apparently been postponed to a later date, not in the near future.
Hours after the report came out, Netanyahu’s lawyers filed a request to postpone the scheduled start of the his testimony next month at Jerusalem District Court, where he is on trial for three corruption cases, so that he will not be in the same place several times a week.
It has been reported that the court does not have a safe room or a bomb shelter.
Netanyahu is currently scheduled to start testifying on December 2 as the defense portion of the trial kicks off after the prosecution rested earlier this year. This testimony is expected to last several hours a day and take weeks to complete. The premier’s legal team asked late Sunday for the testimony to be postponed for two and a half months.
In July this year, Netanyahu’s legal team requested that the court postpone his testimony from November until March 2025 due to his need to manage the war, but the court rejected the request and set the date for December.
The prime minister has been charged with fraud and breach of trust in two cases and bribery, fraud and breach of trust in a third. He was indicted almost five years ago, in January 2020, and the trial began in May of that year. He denies all the allegations against him.
Last month’s attack on Netanyahu’s private residence came amid an ongoing Israeli onslaught against Lebanon.
More than 3,000 people have been killed in Lebanon since clashes between Hezbollah and Israel began in October 2023, according to the health ministry, including over 2,000 since September 23.
