Israel Started Pager-Blast Plan In 2022, 'Mossad Firm' Delivered Bomb-Laced Radio Devices To Hezbollah

Lebanon attack: 12 current, former US defense and intel officials briefed. The New York Times— former & serving officers: Israelis behind radio device blasts. These people spoke to the newspaper on conditions of anonymity. Israeli intelligence ‘saw an opportunity’ as Hezbollah moved to radio devices.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah had ordered its cadre to shun cell phones. This after Hezbollah found Israel has spent billions of dollars on a snooping program. ‘Even before Hezbollah chief set the plan in motion, Israel had a counter plan ready’. ‘Israel launched a plan to form a shell firm that would pose as a pager producer’.

The NYT report said that BAC Consulting was the shell firm that Israel had launched. ‘BAC got a contract to make the devices on behalf of a Taiwanese firm, Gold Apollo’.‘Two other shell firms were created to mask the people making pagers’. ‘BAC did take ordinary clients for which it produced a range of ordinary pagers’. ‘But the only client that really mattered was Hezbollah, & its pagers were far from ordinary’.

The batteries of these pagers were laced with PETN & were made separately, NYT reported.‘The pagers began shipping to Lebanon in the summer of 2022 in small numbers. ‘But production was quickly ramped up after Nasrallah denounced cellphones’.

‘Over the summer, shipments of the pagers surged, with thousands reaching Lebanon’. Two US intelligence officials said pagers were given to Hezbollah officers & their allies.

‘Mossad referred to the pagers as ‘buttons’ that could be pushed when the time is ripe’. ‘To set off the blasts, Israel triggered the pagers to beep and sent a message in Arabic’.

‘The text appeared as though it had come from Hezbollah’s senior leadership. The Iranian-backed groups like Hezbollah have long been vulnerable to Israeli attacks. In 2020, Israel assassinated Iran’s top nuclear scientist using an AI-assisted robot.