Israel pager bomb plot was a DECADE in the making: Former Mossad agents reveal full scale and details of the plot that hit Hezbollah
Two former Israeli intelligence officials have revealed how the plot to embed Hezbollah's walkie-talkies and pagers with explosives was 10 years in the making.
Over two days in September, Israel detonated thousands of handheld communication devices used by the terror group killing at least 42 people and injuring at least 4,000 people.
Victims of the simultaneous explosions plot, which was carried out by Mossad and is understood to have been done 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 unwittingly bought over 16,000 of the walkie-talkies 'at a good price' from a fake company it controlled that was named after a real Taiwanese company, Gold Apollo, more than 10 years ago following an aggressive marketing campaign at the time, while around 5,000 pagers were bought around two years ago.
Hezbollah, which has long been an enemy of Israel, used the low-grade pieces of tech to communicate with their fighters in order to avoid intelligence gathering by its foes.
One of the agents, who CBS called Gabriel, said: 'When they are buying from us, they have zero clue that they are buying from the Mossad. We make like [the movie] Truman Show, everything is controlled by us behind the scene.'
His fellow ex-Mossad officer, who CBS called Michael, added: 'We have an incredible array of possibilities of creating foreign companies that have no way of being traced back to Israel. Shell companies over shell companies to affect the supply chain to our favour.
'We create a pretend world. We are a global production company. We write the screenplay, we're the directors, we're the producers, we're the main actors, and the world is our stage.'
One Mossad agent (pictured) said Hezbollah had no idea they were buying modified communication devices from Israel
At least 42 people were killed in the pager explosions in September
Gabriel said that each device only had enough explosive in them to hurt the users.
'We test everything triple, double, multiple times in order to make sure there is minimum damage.'
Mossad ensured the ringtone was urgent enough to compel the user to check the devices moments before they blew up.
After succeeding with its plan to embed explosives in the walkie talkies, and seeing that Hezbollah was in the market for pagers, Mossad decided to up the ante, according to the Washington Post.
The shadowy spy agency bought up masses of Taiwanese Apollo-branded pagers, piggybacking off a recognised trademark and product line with worldwide distribution and no discernible links to Israeli or Jewish interests that might've aroused Hezbollah's suspicions.
The sales pitch to Hezbollah came from a marketing official trusted by the group with links to Apollo, whose name was not disclosed by the sources the Post spoke to.
She sold the terror group the AR924 model, according to an Israeli official: 'She was the one in touch with Hezbollah, and explained to them why the bigger pager with the larger battery was better than the original model.'
One of the main selling points about the AR924 was that it was 'possible to charge with a cable. And the batteries were longer lasting,' the official said.
Mossad's pagers, which weighed less than three ounces each, held a battery pack that carried a tiny amount of a powerful explosive, enough to cause severe damage.
Remnants of a pager carried by a Lebanese militant that detonated
Explosions rocked Lebanon to its core in mid-September
At least 40 people were killed, and thousands more injured, in Lebanon across two days in mid-September after Israel set off explosives that were embedded within communication devices
Photo taken on Sept. 18, 2024 shows a wireless communication device in the hand of a Hezbollah member, the battery of which was removed after a wireless communication device exploded during a funeral, in Beirut, Lebanon
The bomb-battery component was reportedly so carefully hidden that it evaded Hezbollah's attempts to disassemble and analyse the devices.
Another trick up Mossad's sleeve was to ensure that the signal to trigger the explosives required two hands to use.
The pagers had a special 'encrypted messages' function that could only be accessed if the user was holding the device with both hands, which Mossad used as cover for the instruction to detonate the explosive.
In the ensuing explosion, the users would almost certainly 'wound both their hands,' an official said, and thus 'would be incapable to fight.'
Thousands were killed and injured in the pager explosions
Scenes posted to X as scores of Hezbollah members were severely injured by pager explosions that Hezbollah had used throughout southern Lebanon
The pager and walkie-talkie detonations brought Hezbollah to its knees, and last month it signed a ceasefire deal with Israel to end the bitter war.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14221505/Israel-pager-bomb-plot-DECADE-making-Former-Mossad-agents-reveal-scale-details-plot-humiliated-Hezbollah.html
A police officer inspects a car in which a hand-held pager exploded, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024
The stunning incident saw scores of Hezbollah members severely injured throughout southern Lebanon and in its capital Beirut
Chaotic scenes inside hospitals in Lebanon were seen following the blasts
Police officers inspect a car inside of which a hand-held pager exploded, Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024
Lebanon's crisis operations centre, which is run by the health ministry, asked all medical workers to head to their respective hospitals to help cope with the massive numbers of wounded coming in for urgent care
The sudden and unexpected detonations gave way to widespread panic and chaos
Civil Defence first-responders carry a wounded man whose handheld pager exploded at al-Zahraa hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024
People gather outside a hospital, as more than 3,000 people, including Hezbollah fighters and medics, were wounded on Tuesday when the pagers they use to communicate exploded across Lebanon, according to a security source, in Beirut, Lebanon September 17, 2024
Mojtaba Amani, the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, lost an eye when a pager exploded in his face during the deadly pocket bomb attack which tore through the country
A walkie-talkie that exploded inside a house, in Baalbek, east Lebanon
Explosions occurred in radio equipment across the country and south of the capital Beirut
Pictures from inside a residential building showing blast damage
Flames rise up in a building in Lebanon amid the explosions
Lebanese soldiers gather outside a damaged mobile shop after a walkie-talkie exploded inside it, in the southern port city of Sidon
Smoke billows from a house in Baalbek in east Lebanon after an explosion
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