Shin Bet evacuates Netanyahu's son Yair from US over alleged Iranian threat

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s eldest son Yair has been secretly flown out of the US following a “significant threat” to his life, according to the country’s security agency, Shin Bet.

The revelation comes days after Netanyahu himself claimed in a telephone interview with Israel’s Channel 14 that Iran had “tried to murder” one of his sons, without specifying which one or providing any details of the alleged plot.

“There was a significant threat to harm Yair Netanyahu, and in light of this and after an assessment, a decision was made to urgently extract him along with his security team and return him to Israel,” Shin Bet said in a statement on Saturday, without disclosing the nature of the threat or when exactly the operation took place.

Israeli intelligence allegedly uncovered a plot against Yair in December last year, an unnamed US law-enforcement source told Newsmax on Wednesday.

To carry out the operation, Shin Bet reassigned agents who had been protecting Israeli President Isaac Herzog in New York at the time, according to Channel 12.

Iranian operatives allegedly monitored his residence and movements. Yair, who had spent several years in the US and enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle there, was ordered to leave immediately and returned to Israel, allegedly without even collecting his belongings.

His prolonged stay abroad attracted scrutiny at home, particularly after the October 2023 Hamas attack, as many questioned why he remained overseas while hundreds of thousands of Israeli reservists were summoned for a retaliatory military operation in Gaza.

In July, Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, and their two sons were granted expanded taxpayer-funded protection, prompting further public and political controversy.

The news comes as Netanyahu’s coalition faces a difficult reelection campaign in the wake of the stalled war with Iran. The conflict began in late February with joint US-Israeli strikes on Tehran that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and four members of his family, including his daughter Boshra and his 14-month-old granddaughter Zahra.

Khamenei’s son Mojtaba, who was named the new supreme leader a week later, has pledged to “avenge the blood” of his father. Tehran, however, has not commented on or claimed responsibility for the alleged assassination plot against Netanyahu’s son.