Israel tricked Hezbollah operatives into using both hands on their pager before detonating it to ensure maximum damage, according to a report. This was done to ensure the operative lost both their hands in the blast, rendering them unable to fight.
The pagers were made in Israel and the idea was conceived by the Mossad spy agency, reported The Washington Post in an article delving into the details of the pager and walkie-talkie blasts being used by Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon last month.
The report — which cites Israeli, Arab and American security officials, politicians and diplomats, as well as sources close to Hezbollah — said thousands of Hezbollah operatives got a message telling them they had received an encrypted message that required pressing two buttons. This forced them to use both hands to push the buttons, resulting in maximum injuries and deaths.
The plan was okayed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet on September 12.
It added that the explosives in the pagers and the walkie-talkies were hidden in such a way that taking apart the device or even X-raying it would not have revealed the danger to the Hezbollah members.
Interestingly, it was a woman working with a Taiwanese firm who first pitched the sales of Hezbollah operatives to buy the large-battery AR924 pagers. She was however unaware of the Israeli plot, reported The Post.
The woman, whose identity and nationality have not been revealed, had established her own company and acquired a license to sell a line of pagers that bore the Apollo brand. "She was the one in touch with Hezbollah, and explained to them why the bigger pager with the larger battery was better than the original model," an Israeli official briefed on the operation told The Post.
She was unaware that the manufacturing of the device was outsourced.
The report added that Mossad managed to sneak in the booby-trapped walkie-talkies in 2015. Besides a hidden explosive, the walkie-talkies also contained a transmission system that gave Israel complete access to Hezbollah's communications.
Israeli officers were eavesdropping on Hezbollah for nine years, reserving the option to turn the walkie-talkies into bombs in a future crisis.
The pagers made in Israel were taken to Taiwan, from where it moved to Hungary.