 "US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet at the White House in Washington, US, February 4, 2025. Reuters")
US President Donald Trump received a gold pager and a standard pager from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their meeting at the White House on Tuesday.
“That Was A Great Operation," Trump said while expressing gratitude.
The US President in return presented Netanyahu with a picture of the two of them during the visit, titled, “To Bibi, a great leader.”
According to The Jerusalem Post, the unique gift was a reference to the Jewish nation’s fatal pager attack against Iran-backed Hezbollah in September last year.
Let’s take a closer look.
The pager attack in Lebanon
Thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah agents in Lebanon exploded on September 17, 2024, leaving dozens dead and injured. More people were killed and injured when hundreds of walkie-talkies exploded a day later.
The attacks had put pressure on already strained hospitals in Lebanon as nearly 3,000 people were brought in with serious injuries.
According to reports, over 39 Hezbollah members were killed.
Two months later, Netanyahu admitted to approving the pager operation in Lebanon.
It was also learnt that Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency had planted explosives inside pagers that Hezbollah ordered months earlier.
Writing at the time, Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned that the attack could be a violation of international humanitarian law through its use of pagers as booby traps that could be “associated with normal civilian daily use.”
“The use of an explosive device whose exact location could not be reliably known would be unlawfully indiscriminate… and as a result would strike military targets and civilians without distinction,” Lama Fakih, the Middle East and North Africa director at HRW said.
Since the conflict in Gaza began in October 2023, Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in fights across the Lebanese border.
Several Hezbollah fighters have been killed, including Hassan Nasrallah, the former leader of the Iran-backed organisation.
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Netanyahu in the US
Earlier this week, Netanyahu flew to Washington to meet Trump and key administration officials to discuss his goals for West Asia and the ceasefire agreement in Gaza.
Calling him “greatest friend Israel has ever had” Netanyahu said, “People of Israel have such enormous respect” for him.
He added Trump was “thinking outside the box with fresh ideas” and was “showing a willingness to puncture conventional thinking.”
He also credited the American president for the Gaza hostage deal and said, “Your leadership has brought hostages home.”
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Trump vows to ‘take over’ Gaza
Trump’s plan for the US to “take over” Gaza, permanently displacing Palestinians who live there and creating the “Riviera of the Middle East,” has upset Arab nations and Western allies and would overturn decades of American policy in the region.
He proposed transforming the seaside enclave into a resort that would draw people from around the globe and resettling Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt and Jordan.
“You’ll make that into an international, unbelievable place. I think the potential and the Gaza Strip is unbelievable,” Trump said. “And I think the entire world, representatives from all over the world, will be there, and they’ll live there. Palestinians also, Palestinians will live there. Many people will live there.”
His press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, on Wednesday said Trump believes the United States needs to be involved in the rebuilding of Gaza “to ensure stability in the region.”
“That does not mean boots on the ground in Gaza,” she said.
Leavitt also said Trump wants to see Palestinians who live in Gaza “temporarily relocated” so it can be rebuilt.
World leaders quickly rejected Trump’s proposal including officials of Germany, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt as well as many members of the U.S. Congress.
The United Nations, human rights groups and some Democrats said removing Palestinians from Gaza amounted to ethnic cleansing.
However, Netanyahu praised Trump’s new approach.
In an interview with Fox News, Netanyahu did not explicitly talk about Trump’s idea of the US taking over the Gaza Strip but backed the idea of “allowing Gazans who want to leave to leave.”
He added, “I mean, what’s wrong with that? They can leave, they can then come back, they can relocate and come back. But you have to rebuild Gaza.”
Netanyahu said he did not believe Trump suggested sending US troops to fight Hamas in Gaza or that Washington would finance rebuilding efforts.
“This is the first good idea that I’ve heard,” he added. “It’s a remarkable idea, and I think it should be really pursued, examined, pursued and done, because I think it will create a different future for everyone.”
With inputs from agencies