Hitting back at PM, Gallant says Hezbollah pager attack plan was ready to go by October 2023

Former defense minister Yoav Gallant pushes back against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assertion that attacking Hezbollah in October 2023, as Gallant had proposed, would have been “a horrible mistake.”

In a post on X, Gallant also dismisses Netanyahu’s claim that there were only around 150 booby-trapped beepers in Hezbollah hands in October 2023 “as opposed to thousands that we accumulated” in the months leading up to the September 2024 pager attack.

“The pager operation was prepared years before the war and was ready for activation on October 11,” he writes. “Contrary to what was said, thousands of pagers were in the hands of the terrorists by the time I suggested attacking Hezbollah.”

He asserts that had the plan been activated back in October 2023, the damage caused by the pagers would have been secondary to the damage caused by the walkie-talkie devices, which were also rigged with explosives.

While dozens of Hezbollah operatives were killed and thousands more were wounded in the September 16-17 pager and walkie-talkie attacks, far more were put out of commission by the pager blasts than by the walkie-talkies.

The reason for this, Gallant writes on X, was because by September 2024, “the vast majority of walkie-talkies were in warehouses, and their explosion caused no damage.”

בפינת העובדות:

1. מבצע הביפרים הוכן שנים לפני המלחמה, וב-11.10 היה מוכן להפעלה.
2. בניגוד לנאמר, כבר ביום בו הצעתי לתקוף את חיזבאללה היו אלפי ביפרים בידי המחבלים.
3. אם היינו מפעילים את המבצע ב-11.10, פיצוץ הביפרים היה משני לפיצוץ מכשירי הקשר שהיה מחסל אלפי מחבלי חיזבאללה.… https://t.co/FeuRoUSXsc

— יואב גלנט – Yoav Gallant (@yoavgallant) February 6, 2025