Two former Israeli intelligence officials have revealed how the plot to insert explosives into Hezbollah walkie-talkies and pagers was 10 years in the making.
Over two days in September, Israel detonated thousands of portable communications devices used by the terrorist group, killing at least 42 people, including 12 civilians, and wounding at least 4,000.
The victims of the simultaneous explosions plot, carried out by Mossad and believed to have been carried out on the orders of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, lost limbs, hands and the use of their eyes.
Two former Mossad agents told CBS News that Hezbollah unknowingly purchased more than 16,000 walkie-talkies “at a good price” from a fake company it controlled that bore the name of a real Taiwanese company, Gold Apollo, more than 10 years, after an aggressive marketing campaign. campaign at that time, while about 5,000 pagers were purchased about two years ago.
Hezbollah, which has long been an enemy of Israel, used low-quality technology to communicate with its fighters and prevent intelligence gathering by its enemies.
One of the agents, whom CBS called Gabriel, said: ‘When they buy from us, they have no idea they are buying from Mossad. We do like (the movie) Truman Show, we control everything behind the scenes.’
His former Mossad officer colleague, whom CBS called Michael, added: ‘We have an incredible variety of possibilities for creating foreign companies that have no way of tracing back to Israel. Shell companies upon shell companies to affect the supply chain in our favor.
‘We create an imaginary world. We are a global production company. We write the script, we are the directors, we are the producers, we are the main actors and the world is our stage.’
A Mossad agent (pictured) said Hezbollah had no idea they were purchasing rigged communications devices from Israel.
At least 42 people, including 12 civilians, died in pager explosions in September
Gabriel claimed that each device only had enough explosive to harm the users.
“We test everything triple, double and multiple times to make sure the damage is minimal.”
But CBS reported that the Mossad made sure the ringtone was urgent enough to force the user to check the devices moments before they exploded.
After succeeding with their plan to insert explosives into walkie talkies, and seeing that Hezbollah was in the pager market, the Mossad decided to up the ante, according to the Washington Post.
The shadowy spy agency purchased large quantities of Apollo-branded Taiwanese pagers, taking advantage of a well-known trademark and product line with global distribution and no discernible ties to Israeli or Jewish interests that might have raised Hezbollah’s suspicions.
The sales pitch to Hezbollah came from a marketing official Hezbollah trusted with ties to Apollo, whose name was not revealed by sources the Post spoke to.
She sold the terrorist group the AR924 model, according to an Israeli official: “She was the one who was in contact with Hezbollah and explained to them why the larger pager with the larger battery was better than the original model.”
One of the main selling points of the AR924 was that it was “cable charging”. And the batteries lasted longer,” said the official.
The Mossad pagers, which weighed less than three ounces each, contained a battery containing a small amount of a powerful explosive, enough to cause serious damage.
Remains of what is believed to have been a pager carried by a Lebanese militant and detonated
Explosions shook Lebanon to its foundations in mid-September
At least 40 people were killed and thousands more injured in Lebanon over two days in mid-September after Israel detonated explosives embedded in communications devices.
Photo taken on September 18, 2024 shows a wireless communication device in the hand of a Hezbollah member, whose battery was removed after a wireless communication device exploded during a funeral, in Beirut, Lebanon.
The bomb’s battery component was reported to have been so carefully hidden that it evaded Hezbollah’s attempts to disassemble and analyze the devices.
Another trick up Mossad’s sleeve to ensure that as many people as possible were injured or killed was to ensure that the signal to activate the explosives required two hands to use.
The pagers had a special “encrypted messaging” feature that could only be accessed if the user held the device with both hands, which the Mossad used as cover for instructions to detonate the explosive.
In the explosion that followed, the users would almost certainly “injure both hands,” one official said, and would therefore “be unable to fight.”
But it was not just Hezbollah fighters who died in the attack. The children, including eight-year-old Fatima Abdullah, were killed in the pager explosions.
The young woman was studying in her family’s kitchen at their home in the village of Saraain El Faouqa in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley when she heard the beep of a wireless pager.
Her friend Ali Abdullah, nine, told Andalou: ‘Fatima was sitting on the sofa studying when the pager rang. He picked it up to give it to his father who was outside, but it exploded in his hand.
Her aunt, also called Fatima, added: ‘Fatima had just returned from her first day of school, bursting with enthusiasm. She was an excellent student and everyone loved her.’
Thousands killed and injured in pager explosions
Scenes posted on
The pager and walkie-talkie detonations brought Hezbollah to its knees, and last month it signed a ceasefire agreement with Israel to end the bitter war.
Since then, Lebanon has begun the recovery process. Today, Lebanon’s interim prime minister began a tour of military positions in the south of the country.
On Monday, Najib Mikati made his first visit to the southern front lines, where Lebanese soldiers under the US-brokered deal are expected to gradually deploy, and Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops are expected to withdraw. at the end of next month.
Mikati’s tour comes after the Lebanese government expressed frustration over continued Israeli attacks and overflights in the country.
“We have many tasks ahead of us, the most important of which is the withdrawal of the enemy (Israel) from all the lands it invaded during its recent aggression,” he said after meeting army chief Joseph Aoun at a Lebanese military barracks in the southeastern city. . by Marjayoun. “Then the army will be able to carry out its tasks fully.”
For years, the Lebanese army has relied on financial aid to continue functioning, mainly from the United States and other Western countries.
Lebanon’s cash-strapped government hopes that the end of the war and the ceasefire agreement will generate more funds to increase military deployment capacity in the south, where Hezbollah armed units were notably present.
Although they were not active combatants, the Lebanese army said dozens of its soldiers were killed in Israeli attacks on their facilities or convoys patrolling in the south.
The Israeli military acknowledged some of these attacks.