Israel's PM Bennett receives bullet in letter

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has received a threatening letter containing a bullet, local media reported.

Police launched an investigation into the letter, which was sent to Bennett’s home in the city of Ra'anana in central Israel, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation reported on Tuesday.

Israel's internal security agency, Shin Bet, and the police are working to determine the source of the letter. The Shin Bet has also stepped up security for Bennett's family.

'I'm also husband, father'

After the reported death threat, Bennett tapped on political divergence in the country and said on his Twitter account "it should not reach the level of violence, bullying and death threats."

"We need to do everything, as leaders and as citizens whose future and the future of their children is in this country, so that such phenomena simply do not exist.

"We are all people. Arguments and disagreements – yes. Bullying and threats – no," he said.

"Besides being a politician and Prime Minister, I am also a husband and a father. So I have to protect my wife and children as well," he noted.

He called on politicians, particularly those who actively use social media, for calm and reconciliation.

Death threats to leaders

Bennett formed a government last year following four successive deadlocked elections. He heads a coalition of eight parties ranging from ultranationalists to a small Israeli-Arab party that were all united in their opposition to longtime prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Bennett and other leaders of the coalition received death threats and were provided with additional security in the run-up to the formation of the new government last June.

One of Bennett's predecessors as prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated in 1995 by a religious nationalist extremist following a peace rally in Tel Aviv.