1000’s of pagers and walkie-talkies utilized by Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group in Lebanon, exploded on September 17 and 18killing greater than 30 and injuring 1000’s. New particulars have emerged revealing that this was a part of a long-coordinated operation by Israel spanning years. For practically a decade, Israel quietly booby-trapped the units, utilizing them for spying whereas sustaining the flexibility to detonate them remotely.
In keeping with a Washington Publish report, the primary section of the plan was initiated by the Israeli spy company Mossad in 2015, and the units had been covertly launched into Lebanon.
“For 9 years, the Israelis had been content material to spy on Hezbollah, whereas reserving the choice of turning walkie-talkies into bombs in a future disaster. However then got here a brand new alternative and a stunning new product: a small pager outfitted with a robust explosive,” The Publish reported, citing officers.
The plan for pager explosion operation It emerged in 2022, greater than a 12 months earlier than the Hamas assault on October 7, in keeping with the report. The preliminary gross sales pitches for Apollo AR924 pagers to Hezbollah had been additionally despatched two years in the past.
The marginally cumbersome pagers and huge battery that might provide lengthy operational days had been handy for Israeli consultants to plant the explosives. The pagers’ “most sinister function” was a two-step decryption process that required the person’s arms.
“That ensured that almost all customers held the pager with each arms,” when Mossad activated the units remotely on September 17, The Publish experiences.
“You needed to press two buttons to learn the message,” and within the subsequent explosion, customers would virtually actually “injure each arms” and due to this fact “be unable to struggle,” one official mentioned.
Mossad, which had spent years attempting to penetrate Hezbollah via digital surveillance and human informants, discovered that one of many group’s foremost issues was having a surveillance-free methodology of communication that Israel couldn’t observe. The Mossad explored this and the Apollo pagers had been introduced to the militant group as a tool with no surveillance danger.
He Taiwanese firm choice It was additionally essential, as Hezbollah leaders had been cautious of units from international locations with ties to Israel. Taiwanese Apollo pagers, a widely known model and product line with international distribution, had no obvious connections to Israeli or Jewish pursuits, the report additional states.
In 2023, the gross sales pitch got here from a advertising and marketing official Hezbollah trusted with ties to Apollo, “a girl whose identification and nationality officers refused to disclose.” She was a gross sales consultant for the Taiwanese firm within the Center East and a licensee of Apollo pagers via her firm.
Nonetheless, the advertising and marketing official had no concept in regards to the Israeli operation and was unaware that the pagers had been bodily assembled in Israel underneath Mossad supervision, an official informed The Publish.
The pager and walkie-talkie explosion marked a major escalation within the long-running battle between Israel and its strongest regional adversary, Hezbollah, plunging the Center East right into a war-like scenario.
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