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Mossad's Booby-Trapped Pagers and Devices Kill 3,000 Hezbollah Members in Covert Operation

Oct 5, 2024, 11:15 PM

Israel's intelligence agency, Mossad, conducted a covert operation against Hezbollah over several years, culminating in the detonation of booby-trapped pagers, beds, phones, and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah operatives. Starting as early as 2015, Mossad infiltrated Hezbollah's supply chain by selling them communication devices and other equipment that were secretly assembled in Israel and equipped with explosives. The pagers, designed to be rugged for battlefield conditions with extended battery life, were marketed through intermediaries, including a former representative of a Taiwanese company. The devices required pressing two buttons simultaneously for encryption and were extra thick, costing extra, which did not raise suspicion. These allowed Mossad to eavesdrop on Hezbollah communications for years while reserving the option to trigger the explosives remotely. In 2023, Mossad activated the explosives, causing significant casualties among Hezbollah members, particularly rear-echelon figures. Reports suggest that up to 3,000 Hezbollah officers and members were killed or maimed in the attacks. The operation marks a chilling escalation in cyber warfare, demonstrating how cyber operations can have real-world destructive consequences, and highlighting that no device is safe.