Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday accepted he approved the pager attack on the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in September, which killed nearly 40 people and injured nearly 3,000.
The Israeli PM’s spokesperson Omer Dostri told AFP,”Netanyahu confirmed Sunday that he greenlighted the pager operation in Lebanon.”
Thousands of pagers exploded in Hezbollah strongholds on September 17 and 18 – which Iran and Hezbollah blamed on Israel. Some of the Hezbollah members who were injured reportedly lost their fingers, while some lost their eyesight.
Netanyahu’s first public admission about the pager attacks which set the tone for Israeli strikes on Lebanon comes days after Beirut lodged a complaint against Tel Aviv at the United Nations over the pager attacks.
Lebanese labour minister Moustafa Bayram and other officials told AP he travelled to Geneva and formally filed the complaint Tuesday against Israel at the International Labor Organization, a sprawling U.N. agency that brings together governments, businesses, and workers.
