WASHINGTON (AP) — Two not too long ago retired senior Israeli intelligence brokers shared new particulars a few lethal clandestine operation years within the making that focused Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and Syria utilizing exploding pagers and walkie talkies three months in the past.
Hezbollah started placing Israel virtually instantly after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, assault that sparked the Israel-Hamas warfare.
The brokers spoke with CBS “60 Minutes” in a phase aired Sunday night time. They wore masks and spoke with altered voices to cover their identities.
One agent mentioned the operation began 10 years in the past utilizing walkie-talkies laden with hidden explosives, which Hezbollah didn’t understand it was shopping for from Israel, its enemy. The walkie-talkies weren’t detonated till September, a day after booby-trapped pagers have been set off.
“We created a pretend world,” mentioned the officer, who glided by the identify “Michael.”
Part two of the plan, utilizing the booby-trapped pagers, kicked in in 2022 after Israel’s Mossad intelligence company discovered Hezbollah had been shopping for pagers from a Taiwan-based firm, the second officer mentioned.
The pagers needed to be made barely bigger to accommodate the explosives hidden inside. They have been examined on dummies a number of occasions to search out the correct quantity of explosive that might harm solely the Hezbollah fighter and never anybody else in shut proximity.
Mossad additionally examined quite a few ring tones to search out one which sounded pressing sufficient to make somebody pull the pager out of their pocket.
The second agent, who glided by the identify “Gabriel,” mentioned it took two weeks to persuade Hezbollah to change to the heftier pager, partly through the use of false advertisements on YouTube selling the units as dustproof, waterproof, offering an extended battery life and extra.
He described using shell corporations, together with one based mostly in Hungary, to dupe the Taiwanese agency, Gold Apollo, into unknowingly partnering with the Mossad.
Hezbollah additionally was unaware it was working with Israel.
Gabriel in contrast the ruse to a 1998 psychological movie a few man who has no clue that he’s dwelling in a false world and his household and associates are actors paid to maintain up the phantasm.
“When they are buying from us, they have zero clue that they are buying from the Mossad,” Gabriel mentioned. “We make like ‘Truman Show,’ everything is controlled by us behind the scene. In their experience, everything is normal. Everything was 100% kosher including businessman, marketing, engineers, showroom, everything.”
By September, Hezbollah militants had 5,000 pagers of their pockets.
Israel triggered the assault on Sept. 17, when pagers throughout Lebanon began beeping. The units would explode even when the particular person did not push the buttons to learn an incoming encrypted message.
The following day, Mossad activated the walkie-talkies, a few of which exploded at funerals for among the roughly 30 individuals who have been killed within the pager assaults.
Gabriel mentioned the objective was extra about sending a message than really killing Hezbollah fighters.
“If he 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 efforts,” he mentioned. “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.”
Within the days after the assault, Israel’s air drive hit targets throughout Lebanon, killing 1000’s. Hezbollah’s chief, Hassan Nasrallah, was assassinated when Israel dropped bombs on his bunker.
By November, the warfare between Israel and Hezbollah, a byproduct of the lethal assault by Hamas militants in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, ended with a ceasefire. Greater than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed within the warfare in Gaza between Israel and Hamas militants, well being officers have mentioned.
The agent utilizing the identify “Michael” mentioned that the day after the pager explosions, folks in Lebanon have been afraid to activate their air conditioners out of concern that they’d explode, too.
“There is real fear,” he mentioned.
Requested if that was intentional, he mentioned, “We want them to feel vulnerable, which they are. We can’t use the pagers again because we already did that. We’ve already moved on to the next thing. And they’ll have to keep on trying to guess what the next thing is.”