Israel’s secret service not only tampered with Hezbollah’s deadly pagers, it manufactured them from scratch, creating a complex network of shell companies across Europe, it was alleged today.
It was initially suspected that the Mossad had managed to intercept and plant small bombs on a shipment of pagers destined for the Iran-backed terrorist group in Lebanon after thousands of people were injured and dozens killed.
But now it appears that the Israelis have set up front companies across Europe to manufacture the pagers themselves, stuffing small amounts of PETN explosive inside them, ready to be detonated via a coded message.
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied any role in the blasts, but 12 current and former defense and intelligence officials told the New York Times that the Israelis were behind it, describing the operation as “complex and lengthy.”
A man was injured after his pager exploded in Beirut on Tuesday
Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono, who studied in London and lists “disaster management” among her skills, is listed as the chief executive of the Hungarian firm BAC Consulting, which was initially believed to have supplied the devices to the Lebanese group. She denies any knowledge of the alleged plot.
An undated file image of an Apollo pager, similar to those that exploded on Sept. 17
Chaotic scenes at a shop after a pager exploded in Lebanon on Tuesday
On Tuesday, an explosion destroyed a pager. Some 2,800 people were injured in the explosions.
Chaotic scenes were seen in hospitals in Lebanon on Tuesday night following the explosions
A person is carried on a stretcher out of the American University of Beirut Medical Center after Tuesday’s attacks
A dozen people were killed in explosions in Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday
Israeli spies were already working on their ingenious plan long before February, when Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Israel was using cellphone networks to pinpoint the locations of its operatives.
“You ask me where the agent is,” Nasrallah told his supporters in a publicly televised address.
‘I tell you that the phone in your hands, in the hands of your wife and in the hands of your children is the agent.’
Then he said to them, “Bury him, put him in an iron box and lock it.”
He had been pushing for years for Hezbollah to invest in pagers, which despite their limited capabilities could receive data without revealing the user’s location or other compromising information.
According to the New York Times, one of the Mossad shell companies was BAC Consulting in Budapest, Hungary, set up to produce the devices on behalf of a Taiwanese company, Gold Apollo.
Gold Apollo Chairman Hsu Ching-kuang told reporters on Wednesday that the company has had a licensing agreement with BAC for three years.
“Under the cooperation agreement, we authorize BAC to use our trademark for the sale of products in designated regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are the sole responsibility of BAC,” Gold Apollo said in a statement.
At least two other shell companies were also set up, one of them in Sofia and run by a Norwegian businessman, to conceal the true identity of those creating the pagers: Israeli intelligence officers.
It is not known to what extent legitimate businessmen running the companies, such as British-trained physicist Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono, were involved in or aware of the ultimate plan, but she has denied any knowledge of the plot.
BAC did accept ordinary customers, for whom it manufactured a range of ordinary pagers, but for the Mossad the only customer that really mattered was Hezbollah, and its pagers were far from ordinary.
Produced separately, they contained batteries loaded with the explosive PETN, according to the three intelligence officials who spoke to the NYT.
The pagers began being shipped to Lebanon in the summer of 2022 in small quantities, but production quickly ramped up after Nasrallah gave his speech denouncing mobile phones.
Not only did Nasrallah ban cellphones at Hezbollah militant meetings, he ordered that details of the group’s movements and plans never be communicated over mobiles and that officers were to carry pagers at all times, unwittingly playing further into the hands of the Israelis.
A man was injured after his pager exploded in Beirut, Lebanon, on Tuesday.
Lebanese media reported that Israel managed to hack pagers and make them explode
Hezbollah fighters carry the coffins of a slain person after hundreds of pagers exploded in a deadly wave across Lebanon the previous day, on September 18.
The devices began beeping on Tuesday afternoon. When someone tried to turn them off, they exploded.
The aftermath of Wednesday’s second wave of explosions in Baalbek, Lebanon
This summer, beeper shipments to Lebanon have increased, with thousands arriving in the country and being distributed to Hezbollah officials and their allies, according to two American intelligence officials who spoke to The New York Times.
For Hezbollah, they were a defensive measure, but in Israel, intelligence officials referred to the pagers as “buttons” that could be pressed when the moment seemed opportune.
That moment came this week.
To trigger the explosions, according to three intelligence and defense officials, Israel pinged pagers and sent them a message in Arabic that appeared to come from top Hezbollah leaders.
Seconds later, Lebanon was plunged into chaos. Some 2,800 people were injured and a dozen killed as explosions spread across the country and parts of Syria.
Emergency services came under further pressure when walkie-talkies also used by Hezbollah detonated on Wednesday, injuring 450 people and killing nine.
