Suspects meticulously planned firing of flares at PM’s house 3 weeks prior — reports
Investigators say men drove by home to check for security cameras, crawled to launch site 200 meters away from house before firing, stayed with local families overnight
Investigators believe suspects who fired flares at the prime minister’s home in Caesarea over the weekend carefully planned the act over the course of three weeks, according to information cleared for publication by a court on Tuesday.
Nobody was harmed in the Saturday incident and no damage was caused, and the Netanyahus were not home at the time.
According to reports on Channel 12, Kan and Israel Hayom, information cleared by the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court and shared with outlets by officials involved in the investigation indicates that four suspects scoped out Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence for security cameras to ensure their movements would go undetected.
Rear Adm. (res.) Ofer Doron, who was named as one of the suspects, was responsible for acquiring dozens of flares, which were expired leftover equipment obtained by anti-government activists, a senior official in police’s Lahav 433 major crimes unit told Channel 12.
Doron, the alleged ringleader, was suspended from the Israel Defense Forces in August 2023 in response to his decision to stop performing volunteer reserve duty. Longtime anti-government protesters Amir Sadeh and Itai Yafeh were also named as suspects, while the fourth suspect’s name has yet to be cleared for publication.
The four arrived with their vehicles near the residence, parking on a sidestreet. From there, they headed to their chosen launch site — 200 meters from the residence — in a crouched position to avoid detection, the senior police official said.
Doron then ordered two of the suspects to fire the flare at a 60-degree angle, while he and another suspect recorded a video, the official added.
Initially, the three told police that they had not intended to fire the flares toward Netanyahu’s home, according to Channel 12. They reportedly claimed to have fired a test to make sure it would not head in that direction but said the wind had forced it off course, causing it to land in the yard.
Officials said that after firing the flares, the four fled in their separate vehicles. After encountering a police car that happened to be in the area, the group dispersed and stayed overnight with local families, before returning to their homes in the morning, according to the Channel 12 report.
All the suspects, who were arrested Monday, will remain in detention until at least Thursday over the incident, which drew condemnation from across the political spectrum.
Protesters have held near-weekly demonstrations outside the prime minister’s Caesarea home since the government launched its controversial judicial overhaul plan early last year. Since the war in Gaza erupted with Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre, activists have held demonstrations in the coastal city demanding early elections, and calling on the government to strike a deal to free the Israeli hostages held in Gaza and restore security to southern and northern residents displaced by the war.
Sources close to the suspects were quoted by Channel 12 as saying that they had aimed to hold a “closing ceremony” on Saturday for the series of protests, noting that the Netanyahus had not spent time at the Caesarea residence for several months.
“They wanted to end the protests with a symbolic event — nothing more than that,” the anonymous sources were quoted as saying.
The Netanyahus’ private home in Caesarea was lightly damaged in a Hezbollah drone attack last month. Following that attack, the government reportedly demanded a NIS 2 million (just over half a million dollars) security upgrade at the estate.
Since then, Netanyahu has been working from a reinforced room on the basement level of the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, rather than from his usual office on a higher floor, in accordance with instructions from security officials, according to Hebrew media reports.
Sam Sokol contributed to this report.
