INTERNACIONAL
Netanyahu gifts Trump controversial item that helped turned tide in war against Hezbollah
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave President Donald Trump an unusual gift during his most recent trip to Washington, D.C., this week — a gold-plated pager.
The present was a nod to the controversial mass attack believed to have been carried out by Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency against Hezbollah Sept. 17, 2024, in which thousands of pagers, walkie-talkie-like devices and radios simultaneously exploded across Lebanon and Syria around 3:30 p.m.
A statement from Netanyahu’s office to Fox News Digital said, «The pager symbolizes the prime minister’s decision that led to a turning point in the war and marked the beginning of Hezbollah’s strategic collapse.
ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER ORDERS IDF TO PLAN FOR GAZANS TO LEAVE IN LINE WITH TRUMP’S CONTROVERSIAL PROPOSAL
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave President Donald Trump a gold-plated pager during a visit to the White House Feb. 6, 2024. (Israeli Government Press Office)
«This strategic operation reflects Israel’s strength, technological superiority and tactical ingenuity in confronting its adversaries.»
An image obtained by Fox News Digital showed the pager mounted to a wooden plaque with a message on the device that said, «Press with both hands,» accompanied by a double downward arrow sign, the same message that reportedly showed moments before the devices detonated.
The plaque also came with a message to Trump calling him Israel’s «greatest friend and ally.»
The statement appears to be the first time Netanyahu’s office has publicly commented on the strike against the terrorist network in the summer.
Though the attacks were intended to target Hezbollah terrorists, the explosions also injured, maimed and killed civilians, including at least two children. In total, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported that 32 people were killed and 3,250 others were injured.
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A symbolic portrait of a young Lebanese girl who was killed in a deadly pager attack is pictured next to flowers placed in front of the Lebanese embassy in northern Tehran, Iran, Sept. 18, 2024. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
U.N. Human Rights experts condemned the operation and said the indiscriminate nature of the attacks amounted to «war crimes.»
«These attacks violate the human right to life, absent any indication that the victims posed an imminent lethal threat to anyone else at the time,» one expert told the OHCHR. «Such attacks require prompt, independent investigation to establish the truth and enable accountability for the crime of murder.»
Despite the limited number of terrorists killed in the widespread attacks, Israeli officials have championed the operation as a successful psychological blow to Hezbollah.
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Though Israel was immediately suspected of being involved in the reported years-in-the-making operation, Jerusalem had not officially confirmed its role publicly before.
However, by November 2024, Israeli reports revealed comments leaked from a Cabinet meeting in which Netanyahu was quoted as saying, «The pager operation and the elimination of [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah were carried out despite the opposition of senior officials in the defense establishment and those responsible for them in the political echelon.»
President Donald Trump hosts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in Washington, D.C., Feb. 4, 2025. (Avi Ohayon (GPO)/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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The prime minister’s comments were an apparent dig at former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who he fired just weeks prior to the comments over disagreements regarding the war effort against Hamas and Hezbollah.
Neither the White House nor the U.N. immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
Yael Rotem-Kuriel contributed to this report.
INTERNACIONAL
Trump and ‘no one else’ can end the Ukraine-Russia war, US ally says
NEW YORK CITY, NY – President Donald Trump, who echoes former President Ronald Reagan’s «peace through strength» mantra, has the credibility to end the nearly three-year war between Ukraine and Russia, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó told Fox News Digital.
«If he doesn’t have the ability, no one has the ability,» Szijjártó said.
In the nearly three years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, world leaders from several countries have tried to step in and end the conflict. Szijjártó believes there’s a reason that European leaders and the Biden administration «totally failed» to end the war. The foreign minister believes world leaders were fighting for an «impossible» victory, saying it was «obvious from the very beginning» that Ukraine could not win.
«If you look at the current situation, regardless of the huge money, regardless of the huge weapon deliveries which have been poured into Ukraine, the battlefield reality shows the advance of the Russians,» Szijjártó said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (Sputnik/Alexei Danichev/Pool via Reuters/Leah Millis/Alina Smutko)
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Szijjártó believes that Trump has credibility with both the Ukrainians and Russians, and that while other leaders have had this, they lost it by taking «a very clear position in favor of Ukraine against Russia.»
The Hungarian official also accused European leaders of treating the war between Russia and Ukraine as their own, adding to the list of possible reasons why they have failed to bring an end to it.
«So, if you really think that Ukraine should negotiate in its best shape, then we have to stop the war today because tomorrow Ukraine will be in a weaker position than today,» Szijjártó told Fox News Digital. He went on to accuse his European colleagues of not respecting the «reality» of the current state of the war.
This week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv would accept either a fast-track to NATO or nuclear weapons. However, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s envoy for Russia and Ukraine, doubts that the Ukrainian leader’s demands will be met.
«The chance of them getting their nuclear weapons back is somewhere between slim and none,» Kellogg told Fox News Digital.
President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met at Trump Tower in New York City on Sept. 27, 2024. (Reuters/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo)
ZELENSKYY WANTS NUKES OR NATO; TRUMP SPECIAL ENVOY KELLOGG SAYS ‘SLIM AND NONE’ CHANCE
Late last month, Trump called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to make a deal with Zelenskyy to end the war. However, this has yet to happen. The president also said that Zelenskyy was ready to negotiate a deal to end the war.
«The only person that Putin will really want to talk to – because he’s kind of denigrated other leaders that are out there – is President Trump, and President Trump’s the only one who can bring this to a conclusion,» Kellogg told «Fox & Friends Weekend» on Sunday. He described Trump and Putin’s relationship as «very transactional.»
Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump (Contributor/Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
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In September 2024, before he won re-election, Trump met with Zelenskyy in New York City at Trump Tower.
After meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump told Fox News, «We both want to see this end and we both want a fair deal made. And it’s got to be fair.»
Fox News Digital’s Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.
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