Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office confirmed that he gave U.S. President Donald Trump a gold pager during his trip to Washington, as a souvenir of Israel's operation against Hezbollah in September.

"The pager symbolizes the prime minister's decision that represented a turning point in the war and marked the beginning of Hezbollah's moral collapse," a statement said Thursday night. "This strategic operation reflects Israel's strength, technological superiority and ingenuity against its enemies."

Trump hails 'brilliant operation' 

The gift from Netanyahu was already reported on Wednesday by several Israeli media outlets, including the Jerusalem Post and the Times of Israel. The Israeli prime minister also gave the White House leader a classic pager, according to the two newspapers. Trump reportedly responded to the gifts by calling the Israeli sabotage attacks on Hezbollah pagers, carried out last September, a "great and brilliant" operation.

Read also:

A 'form of terrorism'? Pager attack triggers debate among Western security chiefs: FT

On Sept. 17 and 18, six days before the escalation of the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel in Lebanon, thousands of communications devices belonging to the party exploded in homes, supermarkets, hospitals and other public places, killing at least 40 people, including a child, and injuring more than 2,900.

Netanyahu gives Mossad green light

A little less than two months later, the Israeli prime minister acknowledged that Israel was behind the coordinated explosions, specifying that this operation, like the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in late September, was carried out by Mossad with his green light, despite the opposition of senior security officials and some ministers.

Last December, two former Mossad agents revealed on CBS News' 60 Minutes how Hezbollah had been duped into buying thousands of booby-trapped walkie-talkies and pagers, without realizing they had been made in Israel. Israel claimed that the operation was aimed exclusively at members of the pro-Iranian party, but civilians, including children, were also affected.

For Lebanon, this attack is "a blatant war against humanity, against technology, against work," according to Lebanese Labor Minister Mustapha Bayram, who filed a complaint with the International Labor Organization (ILO).

The Israeli operation has also drawn condemnation from around the world. The U.N. human rights chief, Volker Turk, said he was "appalled" by the method used. He said the operation "violates international human rights law and, where applicable, international humanitarian law."