Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted for the first time on Sunday that he had given the green light to the pager attack against Lebanese Hezbollah in September, his spokesperson, Omer Dostri, told AFP.
Speaking during the weekly Council of Ministers, Netanyahu said he had authorized this operation which had not previously been claimed, Mr. Dostri said, confirming information published in Israeli media.
Booby-trapped transmission devices – pagers and walkie-talkies – used by members of Hezbollah were exploded on September 17 and 18 in the southern suburbs of Beirut as well as in the south and east of Lebanon, strongholds of the Islamist Hezbollah movement.
These explosions left 39 dead and nearly 3,000 injured, according to the Lebanese authorities.
If this spectacular operation bore the mark of Mossad, the powerful Israeli foreign intelligence service, Israel had until now never openly claimed responsibility for it or commented on it.
In support of Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah opened a front against Israel on October 8, 2023, firing daily into Israeli territory from southern Lebanon.
These hostilities degenerated into open war on September 23 with a campaign of intense Israeli strikes, mainly against the strongholds of the Lebanese movement.
On September 30, the Israeli army launched a ground offensive in Lebanon.
More than 2,700 people have been killed in Lebanon since September 23, the majority civilians, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
