Reuters: Mossad Arranged Hezbollah Pager Blasting Operation
- 18.09.2024, 8:07
Israeli intelligence implanted explosives board into the devices.
The large-scale explosion of pagers of members of the Lebanese group Hezbollah was organized by the Israeli special service Mossad. The operation was being prepared for a long time.
Reuters reported.
According to a senior source in the Lebanese security service, Hezbollah ordered 5,000 pagers from the Taiwanese company Gold Apollo, which were imported into the country at the beginning of this year. The source showed a photo of a model of the AP924 pager, which, like other pagers, wirelessly receives and displays text messages, but cannot make phone calls.
Militants use pagers as low-tech means of communication, trying to evade Israeli tracking of their location. However, according to the Lebanese source, the devices were modified by the Israeli special service "at the production level".
"The Mossad implanted a board with explosive material into the device, which can receive a code. It is very difficult to detect in any way. Even with any device or scanner," the interlocutor said.
The source said 3,000 pagers exploded after sending a coded message that activated the explosives at the same time.
Another source from a security agency told Reuters that up to three grams of explosives were hidden in the new pagers, which Hezbollah had not noticed for months.
The images of the destroyed pagers analyzed by the agency showed the format and stickers on the back panel that corresponded to the pagers manufactured by Gold Apollo from Taipei (Taiwan).
Hezbollah pager bombing operation
On Tuesday, September 17, many members of the Hezbollah group in Lebanon almost simultaneously exploded pagers that they used to communicate.
As a result of the operation, nine militants were killed and at least 2,750 people were injured.
The explosions wounded many members of the group. Footage from hospitals shows that the injured suffered injuries of varying degrees on the face, lost their fingers, and have gaping wounds on their hips, where pagers were likely worn.
A Hezbollah official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the blast was the group's “biggest security breach” since the Gaza conflict between Israel and Hamas erupted on October 7, 2023.
The leadership of Hezbollah promised to take revenge on Israel for the operation.
The Israeli army declared its readiness to take revenge.