Israeli intelligence used a shell company to deliver communication devices rigged with explosives to the militant group Hezbollah, leading to this week’s deadly attack, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.
Thousands of people were injured and more than 30 were killed, including four children, on Tuesday and Wednesday, after pagers, walkie talkies and other handheld devices used by Hezbollah operatives simultaneously exploded in an unprecedented attack in Lebanon. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the operation.
The New York Times has reported details of the Israeli operation to smuggle the disguised bombs based on the accounts of 12 current and former defense officials with knowledge of the scheme, who spoke to the newspaper on condition of anonymity.
The report focused on the first wave of explosions, which involved pagers sourced from a Hungarian company called B.A.C. Consulting. The firm was reportedly a front for Israeli intelligence and one of three such companies, which were created to infiltrate Hezbollah’s supply chain.
The devices sent to Lebanon via Taiwanese intermediary, Gold Apollo, were manufactured by Israeli intelligence officers separately from products for regular customers, sources said. Their batteries were reportedly laced with PETN, an explosive that has been used in a number of terrorist plots due to it being difficult to detect during security screening.
According to the NYT, shipments began in the summer of 2022 in small numbers and rapidly escalated after February, when Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah pushed the organization to switch away from cell phones. He was responding to a series of targeted assassinations of leaders of his movement, telling supporters that more modern communication devices were vulnerable to Israeli cyberoperations.
”To Hezbollah, [the pagers] were a defensive measure, but in Israel, intelligence officers referred to the pagers as ‘buttons’ that could be pushed when the time seemed ripe,” the newspaper said.
A number of innocent bystanders were caught in the explosions, including Fatima Abdullah, 9, from the village of Saraain in southern Lebanon, who was bringing a pager to her father when it blew up and killed her.
Previous reporting by several media outlets suggested that the Israeli government had planted the bombs in preparation for a major war with Hezbollah, but decided to trigger them early due to concern that the plot could be exposed.