President claims Israel not involved in walkie talkie, pager explosions in Lebanon

Israeli President Isaac Herzog yesterday claimed that Israel “was not involved” in the deadly walkie talkie and pagers explosions that rocked Lebanon last week.

“First of all, I reject out of hand any connection to this, or that source of operation,” Herzog told ‘Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips’ on Sky News, claiming the Lebanese Hezbollah “has many enemies in Beirut”.

“Hezbollah has been choking [and] destroying Lebanon, creating havoc in Lebanon again and again and again. We are here simply to defend ourselves – that’s all we do and we make clear we have to take action like any normal nation would do, like Britain would do or any other sovereign nation in order to defend its people,” he said.

Herzog continued, “There are terrible tragedies in this war, and we never want to get there, but we have the inherent right to defend ourselves.”

He stressed that Israel is in a “dangerous situation” and that “there is a clear possibility of a major escalation,” according to the Russian Sputnik news agency.

Asked whether Israel is currently in a state of war with Lebanon, Herzog claimed Tel Aviv “is not interested in a war with Lebanon, but Lebanon has been hijacked by a terrorist organisation, which is also a political party called Hezbollah.”

A large-scale double attack, on 17 and 18 September, saw the detonation of a large number of walkie talkies and pagers across Lebanon, killing 37 people – including two children – and wounding about 3,000 others.

Watch: Heavy Israeli air raids across Lebanon