It was less than three months ago. Lebanon-based Hezbollah made a big high-tech move: They announced they will switch from cell phones to pagers to evade Israel’s surveillance. But the old-fashioned radio devices exploded mysteriously on Sep 17, killing at least nine Hezbollah fighters and injuring more than 3,000.
Both Lebanon and Hezbollah have blamed Israel for it. And if that is to be believed, what Mossad has achieved here is truly marvelous. Within that short span, Israel managed to plan and flawlessly execute one of the most daring operations. Some experts and analysts have theorized that the pagers may have been tampered with a while ago, implanted with explosives, and programmed to explode upon receiving a specific message.
So, how come Israel managed to breach the supply chains of these pagers ordered by Hezbollah?
The devices used in Tuesday’s blasts were made by a European company called BAC. Israeli agents intercepted the devices in Europe, adding explosives near the battery with a remote trigger.
On September 17, all pagers received a message at the same time appearing to be from Hezbollah operatives, but it was sent by Mossad. The explosion was timed to occur seconds after the message, allowing the operatives enough time to pull the pagers out to read. Those who took the pagers out to read were blinded, and those who didn’t, lost their private parts. Another possibility is a cyberattack, which may have caused the devices’ batteries to overheat and explode.
One of the experts was quoted by Israeli media as saying, “all you need is to introduce a malicious software update, then just hit ‘enter’.”
The expert further elaborated that a fully charged 50-gram lithium battery generates heat equivalent to the explosion of seven grams of TNT. “If you short-circuit a lithium battery, it heats up extremely fast, within seconds.”
But make no mistake. This is just the beginning.
For Hezbollah, the loss of 100s of men, the castration and maiming of perhaps 1,000s more & the total destruction of their communication network is just the start of the pager attack. Israel has the location history of all their operatives. All their infrastructure is mapped.
The routes used by Hezbollah members. The weapons storage houses. Secret hideouts. Underground bunkers. Training centres. Each and every detail of Hezbollah is now accessible to Israel. And just like Gaza, Israel may soon launch a massive cleansing operation in Lebanon as well. On one hand, Israel is dealing one blow after another to Hamas in Gaza. On the other, it has nearly-eliminated all top commanders and operatives of Hezbollah.
Before we sign out, let’s also discuss what pagers are. A pager or ‘beeper’ is a small, portable communication device that receives short messages, typically numeric or alphanumeric, over a radio frequency signal.
The operation of a pager was straightforward yet efficient. When a message was sent via radio waves, the device would alert the user with a distinct beep. This prompt would then require the user to locate a nearby public or landline phone to respond to the message. As tech progressed, pagers underwent significant improvements. The newer models were equipped with a small screen, enabling them to display short messages directly on the device.
In July, Hezbollah had shifted from mobile phones to pagers. There were concerns that cellphones are vulnerable and can be used to track an individual’s movement. But that one mistake has now cost Hezbollah its entire infrastructure.