Netanyahu kept Biden administration in dark over Hezbollah operation, says Republican senator

Republican Senator Ted Cruz said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deliberately withheld details of the exploding pager attack from the Biden administration, fearing that the White House would alert Hezbollah.

Speaking on his podcast Verdict after meeting Netanyahu, Cruz said, "There's a reason they didn't let the Biden White House know about it. Because so many people in the Biden administration were undermining Israel on a daily basis, that they had very real concerns ... Think how messed up that is when Israel did not have the confidence to trust in letting the United States, letting the White House know how they're taking out terrorists."

Cruz also said that Israeli officials had similar doubts regarding a planned assassination of Hezbollah’s former leader, Hassan Nasrallah. "They were very concerned that the Biden administration would essentially warn the head of Hezbollah to get outta harm's way. I mean, that is profoundly disturbing," he said.

On the issue of Israeli captives, Cruz said Netanyahu told him that a high-ranking Israeli official suggested treating captives taken on 7 October 2023 as "essentially dead".

According to Cruz, Netanyahu allegedly rejected this, insisting that Israel could continue its military campaign while attempting to secure the release of captives.