Shin Bet confirmed an Iranian threat against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son, Yair, on Saturday after reports circulated following Yair’s quick evacuation from Florida in the United States back to Israel.
“There was indeed a significant threat to harm Yair Netanyahu, and in light of this, following a situation assessment, a decision was made to extract him together with his security team urgently back to Israel.” Shin Bet stated.
The original report of an Iranian threat against Yair Netanyahu was published on the ‘Newsmax‘ website based in Miami on Tuesday, citing a US law enforcement source who was allegedly familiar with the threat.
The report stated that Israeli intelligence discovered an Iranian plot in December to assassinate Yair in Florida and passed on a warning to US authorities.
The US source told Newsmax that, according to the intelligence assessment, Iranian operatives were already “on the ground” in the Miami area and had even conducted surveillance on Yair’s residence and movements.
Yair, who is accompanied by close Israeli security at all times, was instructed to leave the location immediately. According to the report, he left without taking his belongings and returned directly to Israel, where he currently lives.
Netanyahu speaks on the threat against his son
Last week, Benjamin Netanyahu revealed in an interview with Channel 14 that Iran had attempted to assassinate one of his sons, but declined to say whether the target was Yair or his youngest son Avner Netanyahu.
“There is something here that is unimaginable,” Netanyahu said. “Iran marked one of my sons. Iran tried to murder him, tried to murder one of my sons.”
