Walla: Israel planned to blow up pagers in Lebanon in case of fighting with Hezbollah
Israel initially planned to detonate pagers in Lebanon in the event of battles with Hezbollah, but out of fear of being exposed, the country’s leadership decided to activate the devices while there was such an opportunity. This is written by the Israeli portal Walla with reference to sources.
A former Israeli official said the plan was to blow up the pagers as a “surprise first strike” against Hezbollah in the event of full-scale fighting. After the meeting, the Israelis decided to act now because they were worried Hezbollah would realize something was wrong with the devices.
“Israel was in a situation where it would either use the captured pagers or lose that capability,” three U.S. officials told the publication on condition of anonymity.
Minutes before the pagers exploded, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called his U.S. counterpart Lloyd Austin to say that Israel was about to launch an operation in Lebanon. He declined to provide details, the officials said. Israel had not informed the U.S. of the details of the attack in advance, and Gallant’s phone call was an attempt to avoid a situation in which Israel would not have informed the U.S. at all.
On September 17, several regions of Lebanon, including the southern suburbs of Beirut, were hit by massive pager explosions. Al Jadeed TV, citing the Ministry of Health, reported that four thousand citizens were injured as a result of the pager explosions.
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