BEIRUT – Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency reportedly planted explosives in 5,000 pagers used by Hezbollah months before a series of deadly blasts, according to two sources. The explosions, which occurred across Lebanon, left nine dead and nearly 3,000 injured, including Hezbollah fighters and Iran’s envoy in Beirut.
The devices were said to have come from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo, though the company stated they were actually manufactured by a licensed third-party, BAC. Israeli authorities declined to comment on the matter, but Hezbollah vowed retaliation.
The pagers, used as a secure communication tool by Hezbollah to avoid Israeli tracking, had reportedly been rigged at the production stage. Mossad allegedly embedded explosive devices within them, activated remotely by coded messages. Roughly 3,000 of these pagers detonated simultaneously, causing widespread destruction.
Hezbollah, which has been using pagers as a low-tech alternative to cell phones, now faces what many are calling the group’s most significant security breach in years.
The blasts have intensified the already high tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, particularly following the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Despite the situation, experts do not anticipate the explosions to signal an imminent ground offensive from Israel, though the event underscores the depth of Israeli intelligence within Hezbollah.