Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged for the first time that he greenlit an operation on Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in September that saw thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies explode across Lebanon and parts of Syria, killing dozens.
During a weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu said the attacks and Israel's assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed that same month in an airstrike on Beirut, were carried out "despite the opposition" of some Israeli officials,
Netanyahu's comments came after he fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Tuesday, the culmination of long-simmering disagreements between the two about how Israel should carry out wars in Gaza and Lebanon. Netanyahu said a "crisis of trust" had developed between the two. He appointed Foreign Minister Israel Katz to take over the position.