Netanyahu says Iran ‘tried to murder one of my sons,’ doesn’t give further details

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Iran had tried to assassinate one of his two sons, in what appeared to be a defense of the recent and unusual agreement to extend their security protection even if he loses the upcoming election.

“Here I think there is something quite unbelievable… Iran targeted one of my sons. Iran tried to kill, to murder one of my sons,” Netanyahu told the pro-government Channel 14 in a phone interview, without saying which of his sons was a target, or providing any further details.

Hebrew media outlets noted that the matter had been under censorship for several months. Channel 12 said the alleged assassination plot has been known to the Israeli security establishment for several months.

“Iran tried to murder one of my sons,” the prime minister repeated. “And therefore this security protection is not a luxury,” he went on, seemingly referring to the agreement reached with the Shin Bet to extend security protection for his sons, Yair and Avner, and to grant lifetime security coverage to his wife, Sara, regardless of the outcome of the October 27 election.

The deal, reportedly made back in July, has been a topic of conversation again in recent days after the Shin Bet declined to provide a security detail for Netanyahu’s main election opponent, Yashar chair Gadi Eisenkot. On Monday, the security agency said it would allow Eisenkot armed guards but would not provide them itself.

Netanyahu told Channel 14 that without the security coverage provided to his sons, the would-be-assassins “would succeed.”

Netanyahu’s son Avner lives in Israel. Yair, the better-known of the two due to his hardline right-wing social media presence, has spent much of the past few years in Miami.

Channel 12 said the alleged attempt took place at a time when Yair Netanyahu was not in Israel, but did not specify that Yair was the target.

The round-the-clock security coverage granted to Yair Netanyahu has long been criticized as excessive, given that he generally lives abroad. In 2024, outlets reported the premier’s son was living in an extravagant apartment complex in Miami, Florida, with a chauffeur and a pair of bodyguards from the Shin Bet’s elite Unit 730, costing the state an estimated NIS 200,000 ($55,000) a month.

The decision to grant Shin Bet protection to Netanyahu’s wife and children was initially approved in March 2023 after hundreds of anti-government protesters massed outside a Tel Aviv hair salon while Sara was inside, leading her to claim that she had feared her life was in danger.