New Hope Party leader Gideon Sa’ar said on Sunday that the state of Lebanon should be held responsible for the Hezbollah drone attack on the Caesarea residence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday.
“From the territory of a U.N. member state—Lebanon—an assassination attempt was made on the prime minister of Israel,” Sa’ar tweeted.
“From Lebanese territory, Israel, its communities and its citizens have been attacked since Oct. 8 without any justification. The fact that these attacks were carried out by an Iranian proxy—Hezbollah—does not absolve Lebanon of its responsibility. And it will not be absolved,” he wrote.
Sa’ar joined Netanyahu’s wartime government as a minister without portfolio at the end of September.
For his part, Netanyahu on Saturday linked the attack directly to Iran.
“The attempt by Iran’s proxy Hezbollah to assassinate me and my wife today was a grave mistake. This will not deter me or the State of Israel from continuing our just war against our enemies in order to secure our future,” he stated.
“I say to Iran and its proxies in its axis of evil: Anyone who tries to harm Israel’s citizens will pay a heavy price,” Netanyahu added. “We will continue to eliminate the terrorists and those who dispatch them. We will bring our hostages home from Gaza. And we will return our citizens who live on our northern border safely to their homes.”
Iran’s United Nations mission on Saturday denied any involvement in the attack, saying in a statement that “we deny Tehran’s connection to the drone sent toward Netanyahu’s home today” and clarifying that Hezbollah was solely responsible for the strike.
Hezbollah has yet to take responsibility for the attack.
Israel’s foreign minister rejected Iran’s denial.
“The primary proxy, the tentacle Iran created, funded, armed, trained, and now controls in all its operations, is suddenly portrayed as an independent entity. Your lies and false pretenses won’t help you—you are responsible,” Israel Katz tweeted on Saturday.
Knesset speaker Amir Ohana told Channel 12 that “Iran made a huge mistake today, for which they will pay such a heavy price that they will regret the moment they learned to fly a kite, let alone a UAV.”
Shas chairman Aryeh Deri said on Sunday that Israel will “settle accounts” with those who targeted the prime minister.
Netanyahu was scheduled to convene Israel’s Security Cabinet on Sunday evening at Israel Defense Forces headquarters in Tel Aviv as Israel prepares its response to the Iranian missile attack against the Jewish state on Oct. 1.
