October 15, 2026
The former Israeli Chief of Staff, Gadi Eisenkot, revealed a huge secret plan prepared by the Mossad in cooperation with the Israeli army to target Hezbollah in Lebanon, stressing that its impact was approximately 50 times greater than the detonation of the pager devices, and pointing out that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to implement it at the proposed time because of what he described as “the fear of opening the northern front.”
These developments came during an interview conducted by Eisenkot with Israeli Radio 103FM, where he explained that the plan was codenamed “Closing Party” and was supposed to bring about a strategic shift in the Middle East. He explained that he began pressuring Netanyahu to activate the plan and move to the northern front about a month and a half after the outbreak of the war and immediately after the end of the first exchange deal, stressing that his position is documented in his records and in a document prepared by Benny Gantz.
Eisenkot considered that Israel missed a golden opportunity to direct an early, devastating strike against Hezbollah that would give it a strategic advantage, instead of waiting until September 2024. On September 17 and 18, 2024, Israel had carried out a cyber attack and a simultaneous bombing of thousands of pagers and Hezbollah’s wireless communications systems in Lebanon and Syria, resulting in the killing and wounding of thousands, an operation that was revealed by an investigation by the “60 Minutes” program via the network. CBS reported in December 2024 that it was run through front companies created by Mossad to penetrate the supply chain of more than 16,000 explosive devices.
The interview witnessed a scathing attack launched by Eisenkot against Netanyahu against the backdrop of the latter’s appearance on the “Patriots” program on Israeli Channel 14, accusing him of presenting “a series of lies and incorrect narratives” regarding military decisions. Eisenkot denied Netanyahu’s allegations related to his opposition to ground operations in the Gaza Strip, stressing that he exerted pressure to push the government towards implementing the ground maneuver and voted in its favor despite his son’s participation in the battles, noting that former US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan received assurances from Ron Dermer that these government discussions were serious.
In response to his confrontation with old recordings shown by journalist Yinon Magal showing previous warnings of an all-out war, Eisenkot confirmed that those recordings were taken out of context, reiterating that he had sent an official letter to Netanyahu on February 15, 2024, asking him to launch the northern operation and activate the “closing party” plan before the Prime Minister retracted the decision for fear of its repercussions, as he put it.
These statements highlight the depth of the differences within the Israeli military and political leadership, especially since Eisenkot and Gantz had joined the war government on October 11, 2023 before resigning from it on June 9, 2024, which raises new questions about the nature of Tel Aviv’s management of its military operations on the northern and southern fronts.
