Photo:Open source
Washington, 6 October 2024 – The Washington Post has published new details about the impressive Mosad operation by Israeli intelligence that resulted in serious casualties in Hezbollah’s ranks as a result of the explosion of pagers aimed at terrorist communications. This strategic operation, which took place on 17 September, cost the lives of dozens of militants and resulted in thousands of wounded.
According to journalists Suad Mekhennet and Joby Warrick, the AR924 pagers that exploded in Lebanon were designed and manufactured in Israel. The explosion system was activated by simultaneously pressing two buttons, which ensured that both hands of the user were damaged. Thus, Hezbollah was losing the combat capabilities of its activists, unaware that their communication system was infiltrated by enemy control.
The pagers, manufactured under the Taiwanese brand Apollo, attracted Hezbollah’s attention for their reliability and durability in the field. The organisation’s leaders were so impressed that they purchased 5,000 units and began distributing them to fighters. The operation began after Israeli intelligence managed to infiltrate Hezbollah and discovered that the militants feared using conventional mobile phones because of the possibility of wiretapping.
The idea for this pager operation originated in 2022, when there was relative silence on the Lebanese border. For nine years, Mosad had been gathering information about Hezbollah, preparing the ground for a major strike. The pager explosions were the unexpected end of a carefully crafted plan that included the sale of pagers that later turned out to be booby-trapped.
It is noted that the new pager technology was offered by an intermediary whom Hezbollah considered reliable. Since the attacks on 18 September, which followed the bombings, the Israeli Air Force has carried out massive strikes against the terrorist organisation’s positions. The operation, dubbed “Arrows from the North,” has led to a new wave of violence that, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, has already claimed hundreds of lives.
According to anonymous sources, the Mossad operation was a landmark in the history of Israeli-Lebanese conflicts, changing the balance of power in the region. The pager explosions not only hit Hezbollah, but also demonstrated the power of Israeli intelligence in the new era of technological warfare.
