Former IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi expressed strong skepticism about the operation that would later drastically weaken Hezbollah, telling officials during a crucial planning meeting: "You can't win wars with toys."
The comment, revealed here for the first time, highlights the significant disagreement between military leaders prior to the September 2024 operation that detonated thousands of pagers and communication devices used by Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon.
Multiple high-level security discussions preceded the operation, but the final decision came during an urgent Saturday meeting just three days before implementation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, then-IDF Chief Herzi Halevi, and Mossad Director Dadi Barnea were present.
While Barnea advocated for the operation as a potential game-changer against Hezbollah, both Halevi and Gallant strongly opposed it. Facing a two-against-one scenario among his advisors, Netanyahu ultimately sided with Barnea's recommendation to proceed.
The operation was executed on September 17-18, 2024, resulting in the detonation of thousands of pagers and hundreds of communication devices. Israeli officials estimated approximately 4,000 targeted eliminations occurred. These events dealt a severe psychological and operational blow to Hezbollah, whose firepower was assessed to be significantly greater than that of Hamas.
In a February 2025 speech, Barnea defended the operation's timing against claims by Gallant that it could have been implemented earlier. "Deploying both operations at the beginning of the war would not have achieved the powerful battlefield success we reached when it was actually executed," Barnea explained. "When the operation was launched, more pagers and twice as many communication devices were detonated."
The operation marked a turning point in the northern conflict and directly contributed to the subsequent elimination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and the eventual agreement with Lebanon.
Sources close to former Chief Halevi responded: "The chief supported the beeper operation at the appropriate timing for the war's development, coordinated with other military actions. Thanks to this, the operation achieved important results that would have been significantly less effective without proper timing."
They added: "The chief is proud of the operation's execution and results, and of the cooperation with the Mossad. Whoever releases partial truths from classified discussions clearly isn't thinking about national security, but mainly about themselves."
