A smoke grenade was thrown Friday at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's private home in Caesarea during a protest by hundreds of residents of Hof HaCarmel and Zikhron Ya'akov against the intention to build a gas distillation rig offshore of Hof HaCarmel.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



The flare landed near the driveway to the home and caused orange smoke to fill the air. The police detained a 16-year-old boy for interrogation on suspicion of throwing the flare.

Police reported that the flare was immediately extinguished by the police force called to the scene.

Police force putting out the flare (צילום: הפורום לשמירה על החופים)

X

There were no injuries and no property was damaged. Netanyahu and his wife were on their way back to Israel from the premier's diplomatic visit in the United States.

The demonstrators protested any intention to set up a gas rig so close to residential communities, saying such an installation would endanger the lives of residents of the area and cause heavy air pollution.

The alternative, they say, is the construction of a facility near the gas drilling rig, 120 kilometers from shore, instead of the current plan to construct it at the Leviathan gas field., 10 kilometers from shore.

Police force putting out the flare (Photo: The Forum for the Protection of the Beaches)

The demonstrators traveled in a convoy about a kilometer long in the direction of Caesarea, where they demonstrated close to the home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

One of the protestors, Moshe Barak of the Shomrei HaBayit (Guardians of the Home) organization which opposes the rig's construction, warned that the current plan would lead to the establishment of a harmful petrochemical industry, dangerously close to Israeli beaches and settlements.

"From a social perspective, public health should be placed first," he said.

In recent weeks, residents have demonstrated several times in front of the homes of decision-makers, including the Netanyahu home of Yitzhak Tshuva, who owns 45% of the rights to the natural gas at the Leviathan gas field.