By William J. Furney
Israeli officials have neither confirmed nor denied that the country was behind the audacious pager and walkie-talkie attacks in neighbouring Lebanon, a traditional stance, analysts say, when carrying out secretive operations of this kind.
But amid the silence from the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — which on Wednesday declared a “new phase” in its war against Hamas — comes a slew of opinion from Western security sources that Israel indeed orchestrated the highly unusual attacks that left scores dead and thousands injured.
While many questioned the use of pagers — an outdated messaging technology that was popular in the 1980s — the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah saw the devices as less prone to tampering with than mobile phones, which have been used to kill Hezbollah operatives.
Nonetheless, pagers exploded across Lebanon on Tuesday, killing at least 12 people and wounding close to 3,000. A day later, in a second apparent wave of electronics hacking, 20 people were killed when walkie-talkies they were carrying exploded, according to Lebanese state media. A further 450 people were injured in that strike, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. State media also reported that some solar panels on people’s homes also exploded.
Western security sources say agents from Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad managed to intercept 5,000 pagers ordered by Hezbollah and insert tiny amounts of explosives in them that were later triggered by a code, Reuters news agency reports.
And a dozen former and current Israeli officials told The New York Times that the operation to booby trap pagers and walkie-talkies began several years ago and that “[a]s part of a front company called BAC Consulting, Israeli intelligence officers made pagers that contained batteries laced with the explosive PETN, which began shipping to Lebanon in the summer of 2022.”
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant declined to comment on the wave of attacks in Lebanon, only saying on Wednesday that “We are at the start of a new phase in the war”, one that “requires courage, determination and perseverance.”
Gallant said Israel was still working to free close to 100 people taken hostage by Hamas — which is primarily based in Gaza but also in the West Bank and parts of Lebanon — during its surprise attack on Israel almost a year ago that sparked the conflict. “We have not forgotten the hostages and we have not forgotten our tasks in the south. This is our duty and we are performing it at the same time,” he said.
More than 42,000 people have died in the Israel-Gaza war, most of them Palestinian citizens, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry whose figures are not possible to verify.
* Photograph shows Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant addressing Israeli Air Force personnel at the Ramat David Airbase in northern Israel on September 18, 2024. Credit: Ariel Heremoni/Defense Ministry