Israel notified US ahead of Tuesday’s Lebanon operation but gave no details of what was planned, sources say

Israeli officials notified the US that the country was going to carry out an operation in Lebanon on Tuesday but did not give any details about what they were planning, according to three sources familiar with the matter, including in a call between Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant early Tuesday morning.

Israeli officials notified the US that the country was going to carry out an operation in Lebanon on Tuesday but did not give any details about what they were planning, according to three sources familiar with the matter, including in a call between Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant early Tuesday morning. The fact no details about the operation were given meant US officials were in the dark until reports of hundreds of exploding pagers emerged a short time later, the sources said. CNN has learned that Israel was behind the audacious attack, which has heightened tensions in a region already on edge even further, and it was a joint operation between Israel’s intelligence service, the Mossad and the Israeli military. The Lebanese government condemned the attack as “criminal Israeli aggression.” On Wednesday, walkie-talkies detonated in a fresh wave of explosions in Lebanon, a security source told CNN. It’s not clear who was responsible or if the US was notified. Tuesday’s explosions came as Secretary of State Antony Blinken was traveling from Washington to Cairo on Tuesday, stunning US diplomats who watched the breaking news in real time on their airplane TVs. It wasn’t the first time that Israel has taken provocative action around the same time Blinken was on a visit to the Middle East. But this specific action triggered concerns about regional escalation that the US has long been trying to avoid. Blinken said the US “did not know about nor was it involved in these incidents.”