According to U.S. officials, Israel targeted pager devices used by Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon and Syria due to concerns that the organization might gain access to secret operational information.
A report by the American outlet 'Axios' stated that these pager explosions occurred as tensions between Israel and Hezbollah were escalating, with U.S. officials fearing that it could lead to a full-scale war.
Hezbollah has announced its intent to retaliate for the pager attacks, in which at least 9 people, including a child, were killed and 2,800 were injured.
According to Hezbollah, several of its military unit personnel and officials from other departments were also among the injured.
In a statement released by Hezbollah on Wednesday, it said that, in addition to retaliating for the pager attacks, it would continue its conflict with Israel along the border.
A former Israeli official familiar with the operation said that Israeli intelligence services had secretly planned to use pagers implanted within Hezbollah ranks to paralyze the group.
A U.S. official indicated that in recent days, Israeli leaders had grown concerned that Hezbollah might become aware of the pagers. Therefore, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with senior ministers, the Israeli Defense Forces, and intelligence agency heads, decided to use the system before Hezbollah could discover it.
The primary reasons for Israel's decision were first reported by 'Al-Monitor,' which stated that two Hezbollah officials had recently expressed suspicion about the pagers.
It is noteworthy that U.S. President Joe Biden's special assistant, Amos Hochstein, during his visit to Israel, held hours of consultations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and other top officials about the operation.
A day before the pager explosions in Lebanon, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had informed U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin over a phone call that Israel was about to carry out an operation in Lebanon, but he declined to provide further details.
A U.S. official revealed that Israel had not informed the U.S. about the specifics of the operation, but Gallant's phone call was an attempt to avoid leaving the U.S. completely in the dark.
However, the American official stated that they did not take Gallant's call as a serious advance warning. Meanwhile, U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters, "We were not aware of this operation, nor were we involved in it."
On the other hand, both Israeli and U.S. officials have expressed concerns that Hezbollah might carry out a major attack against Israel in retaliation for this incident.
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