Israeli opposition politician Gadi Eisenkot, Prime Miniter Benjamin Netanyahu's main rival in upcoming elections, has revealed that Israel could have executed the 2024 pager attacks against Hezbollah much earlier and on a far larger scale, but claimed that Netanyahu delayed its execution.
"I pressured him to shift the focus of operations to the northern front, but he hesitated and was afraid to take that step," said Eisenkot, a former army chief who also served as a minister in Netanyahu’s war cabinet.
In a statement, he explained: "A decade ago, in partnership with and on the initiative of the Mossad, I worked on developing a massive strategic plan that was 50 times larger than the pager operation. About a month and a half after the end of the first truce, I pressured him to transition to the northern front and activate this plan -- titled 'Graduation Ceremony' -- as I was the one who designed it alongside the Mossad. However, he hesitated, was afraid to proceed, and did not want to execute it.”
“He knows very well that I urged him to focus on the northern front, and this is documented in my records and in Benny Gantz's documents," Eisenkot added, also referring to Netanyahu.
He added: "I told him, 'Let's move north and activate the Graduation Ceremony plan due to its strategic impact in the Middle East,' but he feared implementing it. Today, he comes out promoting narratives claiming that Gadi opposed the incursions into Gaza and Rafah."