Netanyahu family on Mount Hermon
Netanyahu family on Mount HermonSpokesperson

The security detail assigned to family members of Benjamin Netanyahu will be removed next week, and the chairman of the opposition is trying to change the decision.

Channel 12 News reported on Monday that Netanyahu had contacted the Director General of the Prime Minister's Office, Yair Pines, and claimed that there were threats against him, his wife and his sons.

A letter sent by Netanyahu's chief of staff states that "due to the length of the tenure of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and given the nature of the sensitive activity he had approved over the years against enemy states, there is an open 'account' between those countries and the former Prime Minister and his family."

"From familiarity with the behavioral pattern of those enemy states, there is no shadow of a doubt that they are monitoring the level of security that has dropped significantly, which will allow them to act against him or his family, wherever and whenever they see fit," the letter said.

Netanyahu also noted in the letter that the assassination of former minister Rehavam Ze'evi was carried out in close proximity to the removal of the security detail assigned to him.

Netanyahu himself is entitled by law to a security detail for 20 years following the end of his term.

The Prime Minister's Office responded: "The official bodies will respond to the Ministerial Committee on this issue as required."