Israel Police arrest suspect after letter threatening Netanyahu placed on brother’s grave

A day after a letter threatening Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was placed on the grave of his late brother Yoni Netanyahu, the Israel Police and Shin Bet security agency announced the arrest of the suspect believed to be responsible.

The suspect, a 26-year-old resident of Kfar Saba, was arrested on Saturday and taken in for questioning by the Israel Police on Saturday.

According to Ynet news, during the interrogation, the suspect admitted to placing the letter upon the grave in the Mount Herzl cemetery, where the prime minister's brother is buried. 

The letter, discovered by cemetery staff, was addressed to the deceased Yoni Netanyahu, and included increasingly explicit threats directed at the prime minister, who had attended a ceremony at the cemetery just a few days earlier to honor his brother’s sacrifice during the famous Operation Entebbe raid of July 1976.  

“What’s going on Yoni, hero? How’s it going up there?” the letter begins before becoming threatening. 

“I was asked to inform your brother, Peepee Netanyahu, that he has a little or a lot going for him, but it’s over,” the letter continues. Making an insulting play on words with the prime minister’s nickname “Bibi.” 

The letter then begins to threaten Prime Minister Netanyahu, insinuating that he has until his birthday to comply with several demands in the letter. 

“Let me be clear, this is a threat of the first order,” the letter stated in Hebrew, followed by a smiley face and the words “Red alert level” written in English. 

The letter also contained several vulgar insults to Netanyahu written in both Hebrew and English. 

It also makes several demands, including reconquering the Gaza Strip, and returning the body of Hadar Goldin, a 23-year-old lieutenant in the IDF who was captured and killed during Operation Protective Edge in the 2014 Gaza War. 

The letter made no mention of the judicial reform debates, nor did it mention any specific political party. 

While the letter did not specify what would happen to Netanyahu, the threats were taken seriously by the police and Shin Bet security agency. The two organizations released a statement following the arrest. 

“The Shin Bet and the Israel Police will deal severely and with all the means at their disposal in the face of a threat of harm to public figures and will bring those involved to justice,” the statement read. 

In addition, on Friday police arrested a 47-year-old Kiryat Gat resident who called the police station and threatened to murder Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He was detained for interrogation. 

During the interrogation, he described to the officers how he intended to commit the murder. He was arrested and sent for psychiatric examination at Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon due to a known psychiatric background. His detention has been extended.