Former Mossad agents reveal details of plan used to target Hezbollah via pagers

Two recently retired senior Israeli intelligence agents shared new details about a deadly clandestine operation years of preparation that targeted Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and Syria using explosive pagers and walkie-talkies three months ago.

Hezbollah began striking Israel almost immediately after the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023 which sparked the war between Israel and Hamas.

The agents spoke with CBS’s “60 Minutes” in a segment that aired Sunday night. They wore masks and spoke with altered voices to hide their identities.

One agent said the operation began 10 years ago using walkie-talkies loaded with hidden explosives, which Hezbollah did not know it was buying from Israel, its enemy. The walkie-talkies did not explode until September, a day after the booby-trapped pagers went off.

“We created a fantasy world,” said the officer, who gave his name as “Michael.”

The second phase of the plan, using the booby-trapped pagers, began in 2022 after Israel’s Mossad intelligence service learned that Hezbollah had purchased pagers from a Taiwan-based company, the second officer said.

The pagers had to be made slightly larger to accommodate the explosives hidden inside. They were tested repeatedly on dummies to find the right amount of explosive that would only harm the Hezbollah fighter and no one else nearby.

Mossad also tested numerous ringtones to find one that sounded urgent enough to prompt someone to take the pager out of their pocket.

The second agent, who gave his name as “Gabriel,” said it took two weeks to convince Hezbollah to upgrade to the heavier pager, in part by using fake YouTube ads promoting the devices as being waterproof. dust, water, providing long battery life and more.

He described the use of front companies, including one based in Hungary, to deceive the Taiwanese company Gold Apollo into unknowingly partnering with the Mossad.

Hezbollah was also unaware that it was working with Israel.

Gabriel compared this ruse to a 1998 psychological film about a man who has no idea that he is living in a false world and that his family and friends are actors paid to maintain the illusion.

“When they buy from us, they have no idea they are buying from Mossad,” Gabriel said. “We do it like the Truman Show, everything is controlled by us behind the scenes. In their experience, everything is normal. Everything was 100% kosher, including the businessman, the marketing, the engineers, the showroom, everything.”

By September, Hezbollah militants had 5,000 pagers in their pockets.

Israel launched the attack on September 17, when pagers across Lebanon began beeping. The devices would explode even if the person failed to press buttons to read an incoming encrypted message.

The next day, Mossad activated the walkie-talkies, some of which exploded during the funerals of the thirty or so people killed in the pager attacks.

Gabriel said the goal was more to send a message than to kill Hezbollah fighters.

“If he just died, then he’s dead. But if he is injured, you have to take him to the hospital, take care of him. You have to invest money and effort,” he said. “And these people without hands and eyes are living proof, walking in Lebanon, of ‘don’t mess with us.’ They are tangible proof of our superiority throughout the Middle East. »

In the days following the attack, the Israeli Air Force struck targets across Lebanon, killing thousands. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was assassinated when Israel dropped bombs on his bunker.

In November, the war between Israel and Hezbollah, a result of the deadly attack carried out by Hamas militants in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, ended with a ceasefire. More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas militants, health officials said.

The agent, using the name “Michael,” said that the day after the pager exploded, Lebanese people were afraid to turn on their air conditioners for fear it would explode.

“There is real fear,” he said.

When asked if this was intentional, he said: “We want them to feel vulnerable, which they are.” We can’t use pagers anymore because we already have. We have already moved on. And they will have to keep trying to guess what the next step will be.