Khaberni - The Israeli Police announced today, Wednesday, that they had arrested a 46-year-old man on charges of threatening to assassinate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, indicating that the public prosecutor had filed a "serious" indictment against him related to threatening crimes in 3 different cases.
The police said in a statement that they received a report on October 13th about a "suspicious person who arrived at the gate of a military base in central Tel Aviv and claimed he intended to assassinate the Prime Minister and a number of elected officials."
The statement added that police forces "found the suspect and arrested him at the location, while he continued to issue threats against the officials and policemen involved in the arrest operation."
It noted that the suspect, a resident of Rishon LeZion in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, was interrogated at the police station before being brought to court, which decided to extend his custody until today, Wednesday, without disclosing his name or personal background.
According to the police, "the Tel Aviv District Attorney's Office filed an indictment against the suspect on charges related to threats in 3 separate cases, with a request for his detention until the end of the legal proceedings."
The police or the Prime Minister's office did not provide further clarifications on the background of the incident or the nature of the other cases attributed to the defendant, nor did the public prosecutor comment on the details of the indictment.
This comes as Netanyahu faces increasing internal pressure due to corruption cases in which he is being tried on charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. Netanyahu appeared Wednesday morning before the Central Court in Tel Aviv to resume his trial sessions after a month-long hiatus.
The Israeli Prime Minister also faces an increasing wave of public anger from families of Israeli prisoners who were in the Gaza Strip, accusing him of prolonging the war and refusing to reach an earlier prisoner exchange agreement, before finally agreeing to an internationally mediated exchange deal as part of the ongoing ceasefire.
Under the agreement that came into effect on October 10th, Hamas released 20 living Israeli prisoners and handed over the bodies of 8 others, while Israel released 250 Palestinian prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment, and 1718 detainees from the Gaza Strip, while more than 10,000 Palestinian prisoners remain in Israeli prisons.
