Israeli man arrested for ‘threatening to harm’ Netanyahu

Published April 4th, 2017 - 03:00 GMT
Israeli soldiers drive a 155mm self-propelled howitzer past a Palestinian farmer during a military exercise near the West Bank village of Aqraba, east of Nablus, on April 4, 2017. (AFP/Jaafar Ashtiyeh)
Israeli soldiers drive a 155mm self-propelled howitzer past a Palestinian farmer during a military exercise near the West Bank village of Aqraba, east of Nablus, on April 4, 2017. (AFP/Jaafar Ashtiyeh)

Israeli police arrested an “Israeli citizen” late Monday night for allegedly threatening to harm Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli police have said in a statement.

According to the statement, the suspect is a 30-year-old Israeli man from Israel’s northern city of Hadera.

On Monday, the suspect sent an email to Netanyahu's office in which he threatened to harm the prime minister and his family, police said, without specifying the nature of the threats or providing conjecture as to the man’s motive.

Police plan to ask judicial officials later Tuesday to keep the suspect -- who has yet to be publicly identified -- in custody pending further investigation.

In 1995, Yitzhak Rabin, Israel’s fifth prime minister, was assassinated by an extremist Jewish settler who opposed the Oslo Accords, of which Rabin had been considered the main architect.

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