Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved an audacious plan to employ booby-trapped pagers in September against members of the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon, his office said Monday.
The statement marked the first official confirmation that Israel was behind the Sept. 17 pager attack, although it had been widely blamed for it by Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations, the Times of Israel reported.
On Monday, Israeli media reported that Mr. Netanyahu ordered the pager attack and a later mission involving weaponized walkie-talkies over the objection of senior defense and political figures.
Thousands of electronic devices simultaneously exploded throughout the suburbs of Beirut and other Hezbollah areas. In most cases, the detonation came after the devices beeped, indicating an incoming message. The militants were using pagers rather than cellphones to communicate with each other in an attempt to evade Israeli location tracking, the Times of Israel said.
A Hezbollah official later called the incident “the biggest security breach” for the group in nearly a year.
The initial pager attack and the second strike the following day involving walkie-talkies killed at least 39 people and wounded more than 3,400, according to the Times of Israel.
Hezbollah began shooting rockets into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, a day after Hamas launched a rampage that killed some 1,200 people in southern Israel and resulted in 251 hostages being taken.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
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