Gallant says Israel killed a Hezbollah member who grew suspicious of pagers

Yoav Gallant, who served as Israel's defence minister in 2024, has confirmed that Israel killed a Hezbollah operative who had grown suspicious of the group's pagers, and that Israel managed to disguise the killing, Ynet reported. According to Ynet, Gallant described the steps that came before the operation in which the devices exploded in an earlier conversation with the journalist Nadav Eyal.

The details are now being made public in connection with a new film produced in the United States. Ynet noted that Gallant does not appear in the film at all, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does. The Jerusalem Post reported that the film reveals details of the Mossad's Hezbollah pager operation that had not previously been disclosed. The political commentator Amit Segal wrote on his Telegram channel that the new material had been approved by the military censor and concerned how people who threatened to reveal the secret were killed and how those killings were concealed.

What the pager operation was

The pager operation refers to the detonation of communication devices carried by Hezbollah members across Lebanon. Hezbollah is the Lebanese armed movement and political party that has fought Israel across the northern border. The Mossad is Israel's foreign intelligence agency, responsible for covert operations abroad.

The Jerusalem Post illustrated its report with a photograph from a funeral in Beirut on September 18, 2024. According to the caption, the funeral was held for Mohammad Mahdi Ammar, son of the Hezbollah member of the Lebanese parliament Ali Ammar, and for Abbas Fadel Yassin, both of whom were killed amid the pager detonations across Lebanon.

The newly reported material concerns the period before the devices went off. The central claim is that at least one person on the Hezbollah side began to doubt the pagers, and that Israel acted to stop that suspicion from spreading while hiding its own role in the death.

Why the military censor matters

Israel has a military censor, a unit within the army that reviews material touching on national security before publication. Israeli media outlets are required to submit certain stories, particularly those involving intelligence operations, for review. When Israeli reports say details were released "with the approval of the censor", it means the security establishment has allowed information that was previously restricted to be published.

Both Amit Segal's channel and the Telegram channel of News.co.il carried the same framing: new details, cleared by the censor, about the tense period leading up to the operation.

Who is speaking

Gallant held the defence portfolio at the time of the operation, which placed him among the most senior officials involved in security decisions. According to Ynet, his account was given to Nadav Eyal, a senior Israeli journalist, and is only now being published. Ynet's emphasis that Gallant is absent from the American film, while Netanyahu appears in it, suggests the account adds a perspective the film itself does not include, though Ynet did not elaborate on why Gallant does not feature.

Where the reports differ

The reports do not agree on how many people were killed. Ynet, citing Gallant, refers to a single Hezbollah member who suspected the pagers. The Telegram posts from Amit Segal and News.co.il speak in the plural, describing the killing of those who threatened to expose the secret. The material available does not resolve whether one person or more than one was involved.

What the reports do not say

The reports reviewed here do not name the Hezbollah member or members said to have been killed, nor do they say when or where the killing took place. They do not explain how the death was disguised or what cover story, if any, was used. The title of the American film, its makers and its release date are not given. It is also not clear from the material whether the censor-approved details come from the film itself, from Gallant's conversation with Nadav Eyal, or from both. Neither the Mossad nor Hezbollah is quoted responding to the claims.