Former Israeli agents reveal how Hezbollah pager attacks were carried out

Two former Israeli intelligence agents have revealed how members of the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah used Israeli-made walkie-talkies laced with explosives for 10 years before they were detonated in a surprise attack in September this year.

The two former Mossad agents told US broadcaster CBS News how the service tricked Hezbollah into buying thousands of rigged walkie-talkies and pagers without realizing they were made in Israel.

Dozens of people were killed and thousands injured in the attacks. Israel said it was designed to attack only Hezbollah members, but civilians were among the victims, Lebanese officials said.

The UN human rights chief called the attack a war crime.

At the time of the attack, Israel and Hezbollah were fighting a conflict that had escalated since Hezbollah fired on Israeli positions a day after Hamas’ unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

On September 17, 2024, thousands of pagers exploded simultaneously across Lebanon, mainly in areas with a strong Hezbollah presence. The explosions injured or killed users and some nearby people, sowing panic and confusion. The next day, walkie-talkies exploded in the same way, killing and wounding hundreds more.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted that Israel was responsible two months later, Israeli media reported at the time.

In an interview with the BBC’s US broadcast partnerThe two former agents disclosed details of the operation.

One of the agents, named Michael, said the Mossad had hidden an explosive device inside the batteries that operated the walkie-talkies, which he said would normally be worn in a vest near the user’s heart.

He said Hezbollah had unknowingly purchased more than 16,000 walkie-talkies at “a good price” from a fake company 10 years ago.

“We have an incredible variety of possibilities to create foreign companies that have no way of tracing back to Israel,” Michael said. “Shell companies on shell companies 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.”

The operation was expanded two years ago to include pagers, CBS said.

Mossad discovered that at the time Hezbollah was purchasing pagers from a Taiwanese company called Gold Apollo, he said. He created a fake company that used the name Gold Apollo on explosive-laden pagers, without the parent company realizing it.

CBS said the Mossad placed explosives inside powerful enough to injure only the user.

“We triple, double, test everything multiple times to make sure there’s minimal damage,” said the second agent, whom the show called Gabriel.

He said Mossad specifically chose a ringtone that would sound urgent enough for someone to check the incoming message.

Gabriel said the agency tricked Hezbollah into purchasing the pagers, making films and advertising brochures and sharing them on the Internet.

“When they buy from us, they have no idea that they are buying from Mossad,” he said. “We make like (a movie) The Truman Show, we control everything behind the scenes.”

Hezbollah had purchased 5,000 booby-trapped pagers by September 2024, CBS said.

They were provoked by Israel when the Mossad feared that Hezbollah was becoming suspicious, he said.

The explosions caused commotion throughout Lebanon, with detonations everywhere the pagers were carried, including supermarkets. Hospitals were overwhelmed with victims, many of whom had been mutilated.

Gabriel said there was a “strong rumor” that people were also victimized by then-Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Days later, with Hezbollah still recovering from the attack, Israel began intense waves of airstrikes against Hezbollah targets, followed by a ground invasion of Lebanon.

The two sides agreed to a ceasefire on November 26.

Lebanon strongly condemned the attacks on pagers and walkie-talkies, while the UN human rights chief, Volker Turk said he had been left “horrified”.

The method of attack, he stated, “violates international human rights law and, where appropriate, international humanitarian law.”