Report: Netanyahu working from protected room on basement floor of PMO, in light of security fears since drone attack

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is conducting most of his working day from a reinforced room on the basement level of the Prime Minister’s Office, rather than his usual office on a higher floor, in accordance with instructions from security officials, Channel 12 news reports.

It says Netanyahu was told to use the better-protected basement level room, rather than his office inside the PMO’s glass-fronted “aquarium” area, and more widely to avoid being in known “permanent places,” since an explosive Hezbollah drone detonated at his home in Casearea on October 19, smashing, though not penetrating, a bedroom window and causing further minor damage. Netanyahu was not at home at the time.

The report says the new security protocol has been implemented because of concern over drones and other attacks, and that Netanyahu has made this clear to people who have met with him in the basement-level room.

Channel 12 says that the new security instructions also explain why cabinet meetings of late have been held in different places, and why the wedding of Netanyahu’s son Avner has been postponed to a later date, not in the near future.

The TV report also quotes unnamed legal and political sources who anticipate that, in the light of these security recommendations, Netanyahu’s lawyers will seek to postpone the scheduled start of his testimony next month at Jerusalem District Court in the three corruption cases for which he is on trial, 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.