Israeli spy agency allegedly plants explosives in Hezbollah’s pagers

BEIRUT: Israel’s Mossad spy agency apparently planted explosives in 5,000 pagers imported by the Lebanese group Hezbollah months before Tuesday’s devastating detonations, a senior Lebanese security source and other insiders told Reuters.

These coordinated blasts killed at least nine people and wounded nearly 3,000 more, targeting Hezbollah guerrilla fighters as well as Iran’s ambassador in Beirut. Analysts have characterized the operation as a major breach of Hezbollah’s security, marking one of the militant Islamist group’s most significant intelligence failures in decades.

While the sources were believed to come from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo, the company however denied the claim saying the devices were made in Europe by a firm licensed to use its brand. According to the founder of Gold Apollo, Hsu Ching-Kuang, the pagers are not their products although they bear their branding.

The model was the AP924, reported a Lebanese security source. It was capable of receiving and showing text messages but not making calls. Reportedly, the Mossad changed them on the production level, putting in each one a board containing explosives that were to explode with some coded message.”.

The explosives, concealed inside the pagers, didn’t arouse any suspicion of Hezbollah for months,” said a source, noting that up to three grams of explosives could be fitted inside each device.

Now, after the blasts, Hezbollah has threatened to retaliate against Israel. Already haunted by Israeli surveillance, the group had resorted to the low-tech means of pagers to communicate. Now, it faces a catastrophe in its security, insiders describe.

This adds to tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, while flashes of a more complete conflict illuminate the dark sky of a daily regimen of missile and artillery strikes in the region.