Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi on Tuesday termed the move by Israel as a “masterstroke” to set up a shell company that manufactured the explosive pagers sent to Lebanon.  It was aimed to derail Hezbollah.

Making this assertion here, he also said the move required years and years of preparation by Israel.  Speaking at the Chanakya Defence Dialogue, the Army chief  "the war does not start the day you start fighting, it starts the day you start planning."

Israel has now shifted its military focus from the Gaza Strip to its northern border with Lebanon, where it has targeted Hezbollah and killed its chief Hassan Nasrallah and several top commanders.

"Israel has done something different. Israel had decided that Hamas was their primary target. So, Israel first wiped out Hamas and then focused on the other side (Hezbollah). The shell company that was created for the pagers was something of a masterstroke by Israel," General Dwivedi said.

Last month, multiple explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies of Hezbollah members in Lebanon killed nearly 40 and left over 3,000 injured.

Asserting the need for various levels of inspection at the technological level, General Dwivedi said India needed to be "watchful" of supply chain interruptions.

"Supply chain interruption, interception is something we have to be very watchful of. We need to have various levels of inspection at the technological level as well as the manual level to make sure such things do not get repeated in our case," the Army chief said.