The State Prosecutor’s Office on Monday submitted an indictment to the Haifa District Court against the four suspects who fired flares at Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s home in Caesarea last month, causing a fire.

Rear Adm. (res.) Ofer Doron, 63, his son Gal Doron, 27, from Zichron Yaakov, Itay Yaffe, 62, from Pardes Chana, and Amir Sadeh, 62, from Haifa, were charged with acts of terror, reckless use of fire, and attempted arson after they fired marine flares in the area of the Prime Minister’s residence in Caesarea. Doron and his son were also charged with obstructing judicial proceedings and the prosecution requested their detainment until the end of the proceedings against them.

The indictment states that the four defendants are members of the “Caesarea Focus” group, which organized demonstrations and protests, mainly about 150 meters away from Netanyahu’s private home in Caesarea, with the goal of exerting pressure on the government to prevent it from carrying out actions they opposed, and ultimately to bring about its overthrow.

In September, Doron and Sadeh, leaders of the protests against Netanyahu, were summoned for a conversation with Shin Bet representatives who clarified the legal limits of the protests, including a clear message not to fire any pyrotechnics toward the Prime Minister’s residence.

Despite the warning, Doron and Sadeh planned to fire pyrotechnic devices above Netanyahu’s house. Doron obtained two expired marine distress flares, which contained incendiary material and gunpowder. These are flares that emit a burning body that produces fire and red smoke reaching a height of about 300 meters, lasting approximately 40 seconds with an intensity of 30,000 burning candles. The flare has the potential to harm the person operating it and can cause serious injury if it hits a person directly.

On Motzei Shabbos, November 16, the four arrived at the meeting point in two vehicles, with Doron equipped with a bag containing the distress flares and gloves. They scanned the streets near the Prime Minister’s residence and assessed the deployment of police forces in the area and security personnel around the house.

From the meeting point, they walked for about a quarter of an hour along sandy paths, some of which were surrounded by vegetation, to avoid encountering police checkpoints and being captured by security cameras located in the area, with some of them turning off their mobile phones and others switching them to “airplane mode.”

Approximately 270 meters from the Prime Minister’s residence, Gal Doron and Yaffe launched the flares while wearing gloves, under the guidance of Ofer Doron, who filmed the launch on his phone with the aim of distributing the video on social media.

The indictment states that “all of this was carried by the defendants who were aware that the house is located in a residential neighborhood that contains additional homes and a children’s playground, and knowing that security personnel are located within the compound of the Prime Minister’s house.”

It further states that “the defendants acted in a reckless manner that could endanger human life or cause injury, driven by an ideological-political motive, in their view, to convey a message to the Prime Minister and the public, that the protest activity in Caesarea has not ceased, and to create a cumulative effect of significant pressure on the Prime Minister, which they believed will ultimately lead, in their opinion, to the advancement of the protest’s goals, while anticipating, as a likely close possibility, that the launch of the flares would instill fear or panic in the public, including among the people in the vicinity of the Prime Minister’s house and even among the Prime Minister and his family, with the flare launch posing a real risk of serious physical harm.”

The defendants were “aware of the possibility that their actions could cause a fire in a populated area, including the area of the Prime Minister’s residence or its vicinity, as a likely near certainty, while taking an unreasonable risk of causing this outcome.”

One of the flares crossed the Prime Minister’s residence and fell about 150 meters away from it, while still burning, into a bush adjacent to a security booth located at the site, igniting the bush and scorching its leaves. The guard who witnessed the fire and the smoke produced by the flare panicked, quickly left the booth to avoid harm, and reported it on the security detail’s network.

Following the report, another guard took a fire extinguisher and headed towards the booth, and then the second flare shot by the defendants landed about two meters from him, in the entranceway of the Prime Minister’s residence, while burning in a large flame and emitting smoke and a beam of light. The guard rushed to extinguish the flare with the extinguisher, and a police officer put out the first dying flare that was still burning.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)