UK’s Starmer tells Netanyahu ‘alarmed’ by drone attack near residence

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu that he was “alarmed to hear about the drone launched toward” his residence earlier Saturday, the UK leader’s office said.

Netanyahu has accused Iran-backed Hezbollah of trying to assassinate him, after his office said a drone was launched Saturday toward his residence in the central town of Caesarea while he and his wife were elsewhere.

Iran’s United Nations mission later said that Lebanon’s Hezbollah group — armed and financed by Tehran — was behind the drone attack, which Netanyahu’s office has noted caused no injuries.

“The prime minister said he was alarmed to hear about the drone launched toward Prime Minister Netanyahu’s home this morning,” Starmer’s office said in a summary of the two leaders’ afternoon phone call.

“They discussed the situation in the Middle East following the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who the prime minister said was a brutal terrorist and that the world is a better place without him,” it added.

London’s readout of the discussion noted they also talked about “the opportunity presented by Sinwar’s death to halt the fighting and get the hostages out.”

Starmer also “stressed the importance of getting much more aid into Gaza” it said, echoing similar calls made Friday in the joint statement he made along with the leaders of France, Germany and the US.