In an unprecedented covert operation that seems more suited for Hollywood than real life, nearly 3,000 Hezbollah operatives were wounded — hundreds seriously — and at least 12 people killed in Lebanon on Tuesday when pagers distributed to the group’s members exploded simultaneously.
The incident, which Hezbollah has blamed on Israel, marks a significant escalation in the ongoing tensions between the two adversaries.
Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad reported that the death toll had risen to 12, including two children, and said nearly 3,000 people were injured. Eyewitnesses report that almost all the wounded were military-age males who were carrying the pagers, which were distrusted by Hezbollah terror leaders.
The attack devastated various Hezbollah units, from fighters to medics in the organization.
Hezbollah called the incident a “massacre” and vowed retaliation against Israel. One Hezbollah official described it as the group’s “biggest security breach” in its history.
While Israel has not officially commented on the allegations, multiple sources, including Lebanese security officials, claim that Israel’s spy agency, Mossad, was behind the sophisticated operation.
According to these sources, explosives were planted inside pagers imported by Hezbollah months before the detonations.
“The Mossad injected a board inside of the device that has explosive material that receives a code. It’s very hard to detect it through any means,” a senior Lebanese security source told Reuters. The source added that about 3,000 pagers exploded when a coded message was sent to them, simultaneously activating the explosives.
The pagers in question were reportedly ordered from Gold Apollo, a Taiwanese company. However, Gold Apollo has distanced itself from the incident, stating that the devices were manufactured under license by a company called BAC, based in Budapest, Hungary.
“The product was not ours. It was only that it had our brand on it,” Gold Apollo founder Hsu Ching-Kuang said. Efforts to contact BAC Consulting have been unsuccessful, with the company appearing to have no physical presence at its registered address.
The operation appears to have exploited Hezbollah’s recent shift away from cell phones due to surveillance concerns.
In a televised speech on February 13, Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah had warned supporters about the dangers of cell phones, advising them to “break, bury or lock them in an iron box” and said the terror group would be using pagers to be safer.
Independent cybersecurity experts who have studied footage of the attacks confirm the likelihood of embedded explosive material.
Mikko Hypponen, a research specialist at WithSecure, stated, “These pagers were likely modified in some way to cause these types of explosions — the size and strength of the explosion indicates it was not just the battery.”
Keren Elazari, an Israeli cybersecurity analyst and researcher at Tel Aviv University, commented on the strategic nature of the attack.
“This attack hit them in their Achilles’ heel because they took out a central means of communication,” Elazari said. “We have seen these types of devices, pagers, targeted before but not in an attack this sophisticated.”
Mohanad Hage Ali of the Carnegie Middle East Center noted the delicate position Hezbollah now faces after the targeted attack took out thousands of its fights.
“Hezbollah wants to avoid an all-out war. It still wants to avoid one. But given the scale, the impact on families, on civilians, there will be pressure for a stronger response,” Ali said.