Netanyahu confirms he okayed Lebanon pager attacks that killed 40 and injured 3,000 people

Israeli prime minister says pager attacks and assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah were carried out ‘despite opposition of senior officials’

Israel has confirmed that prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave the green signal for the deadly pager attacks in Lebanon and Syria in September.

Pagers exploded across the two countries, killing nearly 40 people, including two children, and wounding over 3,000 people just days before Israel intensified its war against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

The explosions were blamed on Israel, but the Netanyahu government had refrained from confirming or denying its involvement. Hezbollah described the explosions as the “largest security breach” in nearly a year of renewed conflict with Israel.

“Mr Netanyahu confirmed Sunday that he greenlighted the pager operation in Lebanon,” his spokesperson Omer Dostri told AFP.

Mr Netanyahu said during a cabinet meeting on Sunday that the "pager operation and the elimination of 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 reported.

Hassan Narallah, the leader of Hezbollah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a building complex in the Lebanese capital Beirut in late September.

A police officer inspects a car in which a hand-held pager exploded, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, 17 Sept 2024 (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All right reserved)

Mr Netanyahu’s statement was apparently a jibe at Yoav Gallant, whom the prime minister fired as defence minister on Tuesday citing "significant gaps" and a “crisis of trust” that affected Israel's war on Gaza and Lebanon.

The confirmation from Israel came just days after Lebanon’s labour minister said his country was filing a complaint against Israel at the UN labour organisation over the pager blasts.

Moustafa Bayram said he travelled to Geneva to formally file the complaint against Israel at the International Labor Organization.

Mr Bayram said the casualties were higher than first reported. “More than 4,000 civilians fell – between martyrs and injured and maimed – in a few minutes by this attack,” he said.

“This method of warfare and conflicts may open the way for many who are evading international humanitarian law to adopt this method of warfare.”

He did not know what the outcome of the complaint would be, the minister said, but “at least we raised our voices to say and warn against this dangerous approach that strikes at human relations and leads to more conflicts”.

Meanwhile, Taiwan on Monday said no Taiwanese citizens or companies were involved in the production of pagers that exploded in Lebanon.

Security sources have previously said the pagers carried the name of Taiwan-based Gold Apollo, a company which has asserted that it did not make them. Taiwan’s government had previously said the pagers were not made on the island.

“There is no evidence indicating that any domestic manufacturers or individuals were accomplices in the relevant explosions, violating the Counter-Terrorism Financing Act, or engaging in other illegal activities,” the prosecutors said in a statement as they closed the case.

An Israeli attack in Lebanon on Sunday killed at least 23 people, including seven children, in the village of Aalmat north of Beirut, far from the areas in the east and south where Hezbollah has a major presence.

There was reportedly no Israeli evacuation warning. Israel’s military claimed that it hit a Hezbollah site used to store weapons and the strike was under review.

Israel’s year-long war on Gaza has killed nearly 43,000 Palestinians and wounded over 100,000, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

The attack on Gaza began after Hamas attacked southern Israel in October last year, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostage.

Israel has since launched an assault on Lebanon as well and bombed Syria and Iran.