Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu revealed on Sunday that Israel accelerated a critical operation against Hezbollah after receiving intelligence that three pagers sent from Lebanon were being analyzed in Iran.
During remarks at the Jewish News Syndicate conference in Yerushalayim, Netanyahu shared, “In the third week of September, we learned that Hezbollah had sent three pagers to Iran for scanning. I was told it would take them a day. I said: we need to act.”
Originally scheduled for October, the mission was fast-tracked. “We launched the campaign in Lebanon three weeks earlier than planned, while the military still needed time to prepare for war,” he said. “I told them to prepare for war immediately.”
Netanyahu described the choices Israel faced: they could either wait to see the outcome with the pagers, initiate a large-scale military offensive, or combine multiple strategies. He poked fun at one idea he dismissed as “conquering Bulgaria,” a mocking reference to what he said was a proposal from IDF officials to storm Beirut and overtake Lebanon.
Instead, Netanyahu explained that he opted for a different course of action: “target the ballistic missile stockpile that [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah built over years inside private homes.”
He further revealed that Israel had attacked an explosive scanner that Iran intended to transfer to Lebanon to inspect the pagers. “We bombed the scanner,” Netanyahu said. “That’s how we confirmed they were sending the pagers to Iran for inspection.”
Netanyahu noted that to minimize civilian casualties, Israel interrupted Lebanese television broadcasts with warnings before launching airstrikes. “Within six to seven hours, we destroyed most of the weapons Nasrallah had stockpiled over 30 years,” he said. “Nasrallah counted on us not attacking homes — and he was right. But we did attack.”
He also disclosed that shortly after he finished his address at the United Nations, his military secretary passed him a slip of paper with the word “executed,” signaling the successful completion of the mission. “Eliminating Nasrallah broke the axis,” Netanyahu said, adding, “some people are irreplaceable — and so far, he has no replacement.”
Netanyahu said he had thought about informing the Americans beforehand but eventually decided not to. “[Former defense minister] Yoav Gallant and [former IDF chief of staff] Herzi Halevi were relieved when they realized I wasn’t going to,” he said sarcastically.
He continued, revealing that Israeli F-16s had been scrambled to intercept Iranian planes headed for Damascus in order to protect the Assad regime from collapse. “Without our help, Assad’s regime wouldn’t have fallen,” Netanyahu stated. He emphasized that Israeli forces had destroyed 90% of Iranian weapons smuggled into Syria to stabilize Assad’s rule.
Switching to the topic of Iran’s nuclear ambitions amid talks between Washington and Tehran, Netanyahu argued that only a full dismantling of Iran’s enrichment program would effectively prevent it from obtaining nuclear arms. “There are ways to achieve this: a deal that neutralizes their nuclear infrastructure,” he said.
He pointed out that Israel’s actions had set back Iran’s nuclear development by approximately ten years, although they had not completely eliminated the threat.
Netanyahu warned that Iran had achieved significant milestones in both uranium enrichment and weaponization technology. “It’s not enough to prevent enrichment — they must lose the capability altogether,” he stressed, saying that the destruction of centrifuges and the removal of enriched uranium from Iran were absolutely necessary.
He cautioned that any agreement permitting Iran to restart enrichment at a later stage would “lead to the opposite result.” Netanyahu underscored, “One way or another, Iran will not have nuclear weapons.”
The prime minister also attacked the Palestinian Authority, asserting that it shares Hamas’s ultimate goals. “Hamas says: we’ll destroy them militarily now. The PA says: we’ll push them back to the 1967 lines and then conquer them militarily,” Netanyahu said. “There’s no difference in approach between the Palestinian national movement before and after Israel’s founding.”
Rejecting the notion of creating a Palestinian state, Netanyahu called the idea “nonsense.” Referring to previous experience in Gaza, he said, “We tried that already.” He made clear that even if Hamas is defeated, Israel will not hand control of Gaza to the PA.
“Hamas won’t be there. But we’re not putting the PA there either,” Netanyahu declared. “Why replace one regime sworn to destroy us with another regime sworn to destroy us?” He made it clear that Israel intends to retain military control over Gaza after the fighting concludes.
Netanyahu reiterated Israel’s objectives in the current conflict: the eradication of Hamas and the safe return of all hostages. He firmly stated that these goals remained unchanged.
He also raised concerns about threats inside Israel itself, warning about entrenched bureaucratic elements that he said endanger democratic governance. “We have another front: the deep state,” he said. “Very deep, like the ocean. It threatens democracy and prevents citizens from forming governments that act on their behalf.” Netanyahu did not specify which agencies or entities he was referencing.
Earlier that day, Netanyahu welcomed a group of United Nations ambassadors from around the world to his Yerushalayim office, with Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon accompanying them.
According to Netanyahu’s office, the ambassadors — who hailed from Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America — received a comprehensive briefing from the prime minister regarding Israel’s diplomatic battles, its military actions in Gaza, the ongoing efforts to rescue hostages, and the broader fight against antisemitism.
{Matzav.com}