Israeli security officials were surprised when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed "secret information" during a speech he gave the day before yesterday regarding an operation carried out by Israeli intelligence before the detonation of pagers carried by Hezbollah members in Lebanon, Channel 12 reported Tuesday.

Netanyahu told the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) conference in Jerusalem, "In the third week of September, we learned that Hezbollah had sent three pagers to Iran for technical inspection. Before that, we blew up a similar pager they were about to bring in, and we eliminated the young man who was operating it."

The channel quoted security sources familiar with the details of the intelligence operation as confirming that Netanyahu revealed information deemed "top secret" and that only a few people were aware of it. Netanyahu also revealed that Israel "not only knew about the pagers being sent to Iran for testing, but also that it had managed to thwart the transfer of an explosives detection device and eliminate its operator."

The channel reported that the Israeli military censorship had refused to publish such information several times in the past, justifying this by stating that revealing it would harm state security and expose sources of information and intelligence methods.

A security source said, "This secret is not Netanyahu's personal property. Although the prime minister has the authority to publish it, revealing sensitive information must be done in consultation with the intelligence services."