Ex-Israeli agents make sensational claims, share how Hezbollah was tricked into buying 'exploding' pagers

By September 17, Hezbollah terrorists had over 5,000 pagers with them.

Two retired senior Israeli intelligence agents have made shocking revelations giving new details about the deadly operation that targeted Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon and Syria in September using exploding pagers and walkie-talkies.

Israel's spy agency Mossad, which has a long history of sophisticated operations on foreign soil, planted explosives inside pagers imported by Hezbollah years before the September 17 blast, as per Reuters.

Plan set in motion 10 years ago

In an interview with CBS News, the agents, who wore masks, revealed the step-by-step plan. One agent said the operation started 10 years ago using walkie-talkies laden with hidden explosives, which Hezbollah didn’t realize it was buying from Israel.

Phase two of the plan began in 2022 after Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency learned Hezbollah had been buying pagers from a Taiwan-based company, the second officer said.

Also Read | Lebanon Explosions: What are pagers and why do Hezbollah members still use them?

Waiting for Israel to activate pagers

Hezbollah purchased over 16,000 exploding walkie-talkies. It was then up to Israel when to activate them, and they did not do it for 10 years, until three months ago on September 17. Unlike smartphones, it is easier to evade location tracking with a pager. The Hezbollah fighters apparently have been using pagers to evade Israeli location-tracking.

Mossad created a “pretend world" in which they 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 of the agents said.

By September 17, Hezbollah terrorists had over 5,000 pagers with them. The next day, Mossad activated the walkie-talkies, some of which exploded during the funerals of those killed in the pager attacks a day before.

Aim wasn't killing them: Ex-agents

The ex-agents said the main aim wasn't killing Hezbollah terrorists. “The aim, it wasn’t killing Hezbollah terrorists. If he’s just dead, so he’s dead. But if he’s wounded, you have to take him to the hospital, take care of him. You need to invest money and effort. And those people without hands and eyes are living proof, walking in Lebanon, of “don’t mess with us." They are walking proof of our superiority all around the Middle East," the former agents told CBS News.

After pagers, Mossad moves to 'next thing'

The ex-agents said that Mossad could not use pagers again. They said that they have“moved on to the next thing."

“And they’ll have to keep on trying to guess what the next thing is," they said.