Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted on Sunday that he had greenlighted a deadly attack targeting Hezbollah in September, in which thousands of handheld pagers or walkie-talkies exploded across Lebanon and parts of Syria.
Netanyahu said at a weekly cabinet meeting that he wanted to launch the pager operation.
The pager explosion and the assassination of former Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah were carried out despite the opposition of some senior officials in the defense establishment and the political echelon in charge of them, Netanyahu said.
According to Israel's leading newspaper Yediot Achronot and other media outlets, this can be seen as Netanyahu claiming responsibility for the attack, which sharply escalated cross-border hostilities between Israel and Lebanon that have persisted since October 2023.
The operation, conducted in two waves on September 17 and 18, involved the detonation of thousands of explosive-laden pagers and hundreds of walkie-talkies across Lebanon and Syria, aiming at Hezbollah members. At least 42 people were killed and more than 3,400 injured during the attack, according to Lebanese reports.
Israeli PM claims responsibility for deadly pager attack on Hezbollah
Israeli PM claims responsibility for deadly pager attack on Hezbollah
Israeli PM claims responsibility for deadly pager attack on Hezbollah
