Lebanon29 September, 20263 min read
Yoav Gallant Says Israel Targeted Hezbollah Walkie-Talkies After Pager Suspicion
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Gallant says the main plan targeted Hezbollah walkie-talkies to cripple communications. Netanyahu blocked the walkie-talkie plan according to Gallant.
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Walkie-talkies named primary target
Former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told Yedioth Ahronoth that Israel’s primary plan to cripple Hezbollah’s communications network focused on walkie-talkies, with delays forcing Israel to alter the operational sequence. Gallant said, "What was on the table was the operation to eliminate Hezbollah's fighting force using communications devices (walkie-talkies)," and he described the walkie-talkies as having greater destructive potential and being embedded in Hezbollah’s tactical command structure. Gallant said Israel accelerated the timeline after Israeli intelligence detected that Hezbollah had grown suspicious of imported pager shipments, and he said Israel eliminated a Hezbollah member suspected of figuring out the devices were compromised.
Gallant said Israel launched airstrikes to destroy testing equipment that arrived in Lebanon from Iran, and he said the strikes also targeted other targets to obscure the true motive. Gallant added, "Then it becomes clear to us that some pagers are already being examined," and he said that meant Israel had to act and detonate the pagers prematurely, with the walkie-talkies detonated the following day in a secondary wave.
Netanyahu dispute and device sequence
Gallant told Yedioth Ahronoth that Israel’s communications operation unfolded as multiple events, with Israel first eliminating a Hezbollah operative who suspected the pagers and then destroying testing equipment brought in from Iran. Gallant said, "So we have three different events," and he described the sequence as Israel eliminating the suspected pager-skeptic, destroying testing equipment, and then acting when pagers were being examined. Gallant said the walkie-talkies were originally intended as the main strike, and he said the pager operation was detonated first because the pager operation was in danger of being uncovered.
Gallant said, "the main operation involving the communications devices (walkie-talkies), which were several times greater in number and contained several times more explosives, was activated a day later," and he said the effect was not fully realized because most devices were in warehouses and exploded there. The Naharnet account said Gallant’s remarks were barred from publication in 2025 by the military censor and were later cleared for release as part of a new film, Paging Hezbollah, scheduled to be released in the United States next month.
Casualties, legal debate, and stakes
The World Israel News account said the pager attack in Lebanon on September 17, 2024 involved a coordinated series of explosions of thousands of pagers and hundreds of walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon and Syria. The World Israel News account said at least 59 people were killed in the attack and approximately 4,500 were wounded, hundreds of them critically, and it quoted Hezbollah’s then-secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah describing the attack as "an unprecedented blow in the history of the resistance in Lebanon." The https account said the coordinated device detonations marked a transition to what Gallant termed a "new phase" of the conflict, shifting the centre of gravity from Gaza to the northern border.
The https account said the Israeli government formally added the secure return of northern residents to their homes as an official war goal, and it said the assault on Hezbollah’s communications infrastructure preceded a massive escalation in conventional airstrikes. The https account said United Nations officials and human rights organisations questioned the legality of the attacks, warning of indiscriminate harm to civilians who were in proximity to the exploding devices.