In August 2024, Israel learned that a Hezbollah operative had begun to suspect the pagers that were eventually used in the infamous pager attack that killed or incapacitated thousands of Hezbollah terrorists and eliminated him in a strike that it designed to appear unrelated.

Details such as this one were revealed in an interview with former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant by Channel 12 News a year and a half ago but were not cleared by the military censor for publication until Monday evening.

Gallant also said that Iran sent scanning equipment to examine the pagers, which Israel also destroyed while making the incident appear unrelated. These two incidents threw Israel into a dilemma: detonate the pagers as soon as possible, or wait and risk discovery?

“In the first week of August it becomes clear to us that there is someone who suspects the pagers, [we] go to the elimination list and we eliminated him,” Gallant said in the interview. “Afterwards it becomes clear to us that testing devices are arriving that could examine these devices along with other things. And then during the process it becomes clear that somewhere there are pagers being tested.”

“The result is that you enter a situation, either you activate or it’s exposed within a short time,” Gallant added. “What is at stake is only one question, if you play it can you reach the full operation of walkie-talkies first. From constraint was born the strategic event.”

Gallant also revealed that the pagers bore the inscription “M-Tech” for “Mossad-Tech.”

Ultimately, Israel decided to detonate the pagers sooner rather than later. On Sept. 17, 2024, the pagers of Hezbollah terrorists exploded, followed the next day by their walkie-talkies, killing 59 people and wounding 4,500, many of them severely.