October 17, 2024, seemed like just another day at the Pentagon until a sudden request came from then-defense minister Yoav Gallant to speak to his US counterpart at the time, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
“It was morning in Washington, and we received a request for an urgent phone call, so we worked quickly to make the arrangements,” recalls Daniel (Dan) Shapiro, then-deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.
This is the first time Shapiro, or any other senior US official, has been willing to discuss in detail the behind-the-scenes events in Washington on the day Hezbollah’s pagers exploded.
“Minister Gallant informed Secretary Austin that Israel had a special capability, which he was about to exercise in Lebanon. He was vague about what it did or how it would work, but he wanted Austin to have advance knowledge of it,” Shapiro told the Post.
He added that, even up until the last minute, Gallant felt compelled to withhold all the details, maintaining the secrecy required for such a sensitive operation. The answer to what Israel’s “special capability” was, as Gallant described it, came from CNN.
“When the call concluded, we were still pretty confused about what he was describing because he didn’t go into much detail. But within less than 30 minutes, we started to see reports on CNN and other television networks about explosions happening in Lebanon,” Shapiro explained.
Exploding of Hezbollah pagers
On that day, October 17, thousands of pagers belonging to Hezbollah exploded. The following day, hundreds of walkie-talkie devices belonging to the terrorist organization also exploded. Official estimates claimed that at least 59 people were killed and more than 4,000 were injured.
Reuters later reported that 1,500 Hezbollah operatives were injured so severely that they couldn’t return to service. “We weren’t really given an explanation as to why that was the exact moment Israel chose to use this capability,” Shapiro told the Post.
“What we came to understand was that there was concern the capability was about to be exposed. Hezbollah had grown suspicious of the pagers, and it became a ‘use-it-or-lose-it’ situation, which meant that it had a significant impact, but less than it might have if it had been used in the way originally intended.”
Shapiro described the operation as surprising and creative. “It was unusual. And in some ways, you could say it was impressive. Maybe in many ways, you could say it was impressive. I think that was certainly part of the reaction from senior people in the US government.
“They were impressed by the creativity, the ingenuity, the secrecy, and the careful targeting of Hezbollah members, ensuring that civilians weren’t affected.”
Since the start of the war, there has been ongoing debate between Gallant and Prime Minister Netanyahu over whether Israel should have opened a front with Hezbollah on October 11, 2023, just four days after the October 7 massacre.
While Gallant argued that it was a missed opportunity and that Israel could have detonated the walkie-talkies and pagers, causing substantial damage to Hezbollah, Netanyahu, and Mossad head Dadi (David) Barnea stated that the capability wasn’t ready at that time.
During the first week of the war, former US president Joe Biden opposed the idea of opening a new front against Hezbollah. Now, Shapiro tells the Post that if the US had known about the pager operation, as well as the subsequent plans and attacks, the Biden administration’s stance might have been different.
“American officials didn’t know about it at the time, so they couldn’t factor it into our advice or recommendations on whether or not to attack Hezbollah,” Shapiro explained. “They hadn’t been walked through how the sequence of events would unfold. If we had known, I think it would have shaped the conversation differently.”
Shapiro concluded the events of that day and the operation by reminding the administration that Israel should not be underestimated. “It has great intelligence, great technology, inventive and creative people, and there might be capabilities, tactics, and decisions that we wouldn’t know about.”