Former Mossad Agents Reveal Details of Exploding Pagers Used Against Hezbollah

Washington (Quds News Network)- Two recently retired senior Israeli intelligence agents revealed new details about the years-long operation that targeted Hezbollah in Lebanon using exploding pagers and walkie talkies three months ago.

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

One agent said the operation started 10 years ago using walkie-talkies laden with hidden explosives, which Hezbollah didn’t realize it was buying from Israel. The walkie-talkies were not detonated until September, a day after booby-trapped pagers were set off.

Asked if that was intentional, “We want them to feel vulnerable, which they are,” said the officer, who went by the name “Michael.”

“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.”

“The walkie-talkie was a weapon, just like a bullet or a missile or a mortar,” Michael said.

The walkie-talkie battery, made in Israel at a Mossad facility, included an explosive device, Michael disclosed. The walkie-talkies were designed to go into the chest pocket of a tactical vest for soldiers.

According to Michael, Hezbollah bought more than 16,000 of the exploding devices, some of which were eventually used against them on Sept. 18.

“They got a good price,” Michael said.

The price couldn’t be too low because Israel didn’t want Hezbollah to be suspicious, according to agents. Mossad also needed to hide its identity as the seller and ensure the walkie-talkies couldn’t be traced back to Israel. So they set up shell companies to infiltrate the supply chain.

“We create a pretend world. We are a global production company: We write the screenplay, we’re the directors, we’re the producers, we’re the main actors,” Michael said. “And the world is our stage.”

Phase two of the plan, using the booby-trapped pagers, kicked in in 2022 after Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency learned Hezbollah had been buying 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 on dummies multiple times to find the right amount of explosive that would hurt only the Hezbollah member and not anyone else in close proximity.

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

The second agent, who went by the name “Gabriel,” said it took two weeks to convince Hezbollah to switch to the heftier pager, in part by using false ads on YouTube promoting the devices as dustproof, waterproof, providing a long battery life and more.

He described the use of shell companies, including one based in Hungary, to dupe the Taiwanese firm, Gold Apollo, into unknowingly partnering with the Mossad.

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

“When they are buying from us, they have zero clue that they are buying from the Mossad,” Gabriel said. “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 members had 5,000 pagers in their pockets.

Israel triggered the attack on Sept. 17, when pagers all over Lebanon started beeping. The devices would explode even if the person failed to push the buttons to read an incoming encrypted message.

WATCH 🚨

Mossad Reveals it was a 10-Year Pager Operation: “We’ve Moved On—Let Them Guess What’s Next”

Leslie Stahl: The operation started 10 years ago, not with pagers, but with weaponizing walkie talkies. Inside the battery, there is an explosive device. And that was the… pic.twitter.com/PGFNoDTKhG

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) December 23, 2024

The next day, Mossad activated the walkie-talkies, some of which exploded at funerals for some of the approximately 30 people who were killed in the pager attacks.

Gabriel said the goal was more about sending a message than actually killing Hezbollah members.

“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 said. “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.”

The agent using the name “Michael” said that the day after the pager explosions, people in Lebanon were afraid to turn on their air conditioners out of fear that they would explode, too.

“There is real fear,” he said.