Netanyahu admits Israel's role in pager, walkie-talkie attacks on Hezbollah

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the first time admitted that Israel was behind the pager and walkie-talkie attacks on Hezbollah in September that left at least 39 people dead and more than 3,000 injured, local media reports have said.

“The pager operation and the elimination of (Hezbollah leader Hassan) Nasrallah were carried out despite the opposition of senior officials in the defence establishment and those responsible for them in the political echelon,” The Times of Israel newspaper quoted Netanyahu as saying.

Netanyahu's remarks came during Sunday’s weekly Cabinet meeting, according to Hebrew media reports.

Israel had so far not taken responsibility publicly for the attacks, but it was widely speculated that it was behind the complex successfully orchestrated attacks that took the world by surprise.

Thousands of pagers containing explosives exploded on their Hezbollah owners across Lebanon and parts of Syria on 16 September.

לשכתי נתונה למתקפה פרועה וחסרת מעצורים. זה מסע ציד מאורגן שנועד לפגוע בהנהגת המדינה. pic.twitter.com/lDQ9SoqbKx

— Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) November 10, 2024

While the world was still absorbing the news of pager explosions, walkie-talkies met the same fate a day later on 17 September, shocking the world at the level of Israeli intelligence's preparation in its war against the Lebanese Shia militia. 

Netanyahu's statement is being interpreted in the context of his firing of defence minister Yoav Gallant and efforts to shore up personal popularity by taking credit for war successes.  

Gallant was fired from the defence minister's position on November 5.

Netanyahu and Gallant have clashed repeatedly over the course of their time in government together. 

Netanyahu also tried to get rid of him in March 2023 as well, a day after Gallant called for pausing the legislation process of the government’s contentious judicial overhaul plan arguing that it caused divisions that posed a threat to national security, but had to reinstate him due to massive public protests.

He was the defence minister when Hamas committed its deadly terror assault in southern Israel on 7 October 2023 and had so far carried out his duties in the subsequent war in the Gaza Strip, the fighting on the northern border, and the ground operation in southern Lebanon.

In a press conference on Tuesday, Gallant said that he was fired because of differences on the issue of the need to draft ultra-orthodox men in the Israel Defence Forces, the imperative to bring back the hostages from Gaza, and the need for establishing a state commission of inquiry to look into the 7 October Hamas terror attack and the ensuing war.

Netanyahu has resisted taking responsibility for the country’s security oversights, blaming Israel’s security forces for the failure to foresee Hamas’ 7 October massacre.

He has also ducked calls for a public commission of inquiry to be constituted into events leading up to it.