The cleverness of the Mossad never ceases to amaze me…
Disclosing details of alleged Mossad operation, sources tell Washington Post detonation signal was an encrypted message that required double-button press to reveal contents
6 October 2024
The signal that detonated thousands of Hezbollah pagers last month was an encrypted message that required users to hold the devices with both hands, maximizing the chances of causing debilitating injuries, sources said in a Saturday report.
An alleged Israeli operation blew up pagers and walkie-talkies used by the Lebanese terror group on September 17 and 18, kicking off an ongoing series of Israeli airstrikes that have dealt immense blows to Hezbollah, including the killing of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
Israeli, US, and Middle Eastern officials estimate that up to 3,000 Hezbollah members were killed or injured by the pagers, as well as an unknown number of civilians, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.
The Post report — which cited Israeli, Arab, and American security officials, politicians and diplomats, as well as Lebanese sources close to Hezbollah, all of them anonymous — said the pagers were made in Israel and conceived by the Mossad spy agency.
After Mossad officials revealed the capability to elected officials on September 12 and the operation was allegedly okayed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, thousands of Hezbollah operatives got a message telling them they had received an encrypted message that required pressing two buttons — effectively forcing them to use both hands, and to be injured in both hands when the blasts occurred as they pushed the buttons.
“You had to push two buttons to read the message,” one official explained, so that the blast would likely “wound both their hands,” rendering the user “incapable to fight.”
The report also revealed that hundreds of booby-trapped walkie-talkies — which were detonated a day later — had been used by Hezbollah since 2015, providing Israel continued real-time access into the terror group’s communications for many years before the devices were weaponized in a more literal way.
Hezbollah had purchased pagers to avoid Israeli communications surveillance. Earlier this year, a sales pitch convinced the group to buy large-battery AR924 pagers from Apollo, a known Taiwanese brand.
The contact came from a woman who had in the past been a Middle East sales agent for Apollo and who was trusted by Hezbollah. Officials declined to reveal her identity. According to the Washington Post report, she had set up her own company to sell pagers under the Apollo brand.
Previous media reports tracked down a woman called Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono, the CEO of Budapest-based BAC Consulting, which the Taiwanese trademark holder of the pagers said was responsible for manufacturing the devices.
Among the touted advantages of the pagers was their waterproof design and a large battery that enabled months of use without charging.
The terror group bought 5,000 devices and manufacture was outsourced. Unknown to Hezbollah — and apparently Apollo and the saleswoman — they were assembled in Israel with a small amount of explosive added to each battery.
The pagers were eventually distributed to what the report described as Hezbollah’s “mid-level fighters and support personnel” in February.
The tiny explosives in the pagers and the walkie-talkies were concealed in a way that taking apart the device — or even X-raying it — could not reveal the danger to Hezbollah members, who readily embraced the Israeli-designed and -manufactured gadgets, sources told the Post. Israeli officials assess that some of the devices did in fact undergo such examinations, the report said.
The existence of the pager setup was only revealed to senior Israeli cabinet members on September 12, when Netanyahu held a meeting with security advisers about dealing with Hezbollah, the Israeli officials said.
US officials said that Washington was not told about the pagers or the discussions about exploding them.
Alongside using the pagers, Israeli officials also discussed targeting Hezbollah leader Nasrallah, whose movements and location Israel had known for years despite his furtive lifestyle, officials said.
Killing Nasrallah was expected to lead to an open war with Hezbollah and, possibly, Iran. In addition, the US had been pushing Nasrallah to agree to a ceasefire in Lebanon that would satisfy Israel’s demand that Hezbollah withdraw its fighters from border areas.
US and Middle Eastern officials said that while Israel had supported the US plan, Nasrallah refused, insisting that a halt in the fighting only come after a ceasefire in Gaza.
On September 17, the signal was sent to detonate the pagers and a message in Arabic appeared on their screens reading, “You received an encrypted message.”
When the operators pressed the two required buttons to read the message, the pagers exploded. Less than 60 seconds later, the Post reported, thousands of other pagers also exploded even without the pair of buttons being used.
The following day, hundreds of Hezbollah walkie-talkies also exploded, causing deaths and injuries.
Nasrallah was killed on September 27 in a massive attack on his Beirut bunker.
The fighting with Hezbollah began when the Iran-backed terror group started to launch cross-border rocket and drone fire last October 8, one day after Palestinian terror group Hamas led a devastating attack on Israel that opened the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip. Hezbollah has since carried out near-daily attacks in support of Hamas.
The fighting has also drawn in direct rocket barrages from Iran. Last week the Islamic Republic fired around 200 rockets at Israel, causing some damage, though most were either intercepted or hit open areas.
One of the apparent targets of the barrage was Mossad headquarters near Tel Aviv.
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