Two recently retired senior Israeli intelligence agents share details of a deadly covert operation that targeted Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and Syria using exploding pagers and walkie-talkies.
WASHINGTON – Two recently retired senior Israeli intelligence agents shared new details about a deadly years-long covert operation targeting Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and Syria using exploding pagers and walkie talkies three months ago.
Hezbollah began striking Israel almost immediately after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that triggered Israel-Hamas war.
The agents spoke to CBS’ “60 Minutes” in an episode that aired Sunday night. They wore masks and spoke in altered voices to hide their identities.
One agent said the operation started 10 years ago with walkie-talkies loaded with hidden explosives, which Hezbollah did not realize they were buying from Israel, its enemy. The walkie-talkies were not detonated until September, a day after pagers were put into operation.
“We created a make-believe world,” said the officer, who went by the name “Michael.”
Phase two of the plan, using pagers, began in 2022 after Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency learned that Hezbollah had bought pagers from a Taiwan-based company, the second officer said.
The pagers had to be made slightly larger to accommodate the explosives hidden inside. They were tested on dummies several times to find the right amount of explosive that would only harm the Hezbollah fighter and not anyone else nearby.
The Mossad also tested many ringtones to find one that sounded urgent enough to make someone pull the pager out of their pocket.
The second agent, who went by the name “Gabriel,” said it took two weeks to convince Hezbollah to switch to the more powerful pager, in part by using fake ads on YouTube promoting the devices as dustproof, waterproof, long battery life and more.
He described the use of shell companies, including one based in Hungaryto trick the Taiwanese company Gold Apollo into unwittingly cooperating with the Mossad.
Hezbollah was also unaware that they were working with Israel.
Gabriel compared the ruse to a 1998 psychological film about a man who has no idea he’s living in a fake world and his family and friends are actors paid to keep up the illusion.
“When they buy from us, they have no idea they’re buying from the Mossad,” Gabriel said. “We do like the ‘Truman Show,’ everything is controlled by us behind the scenes. In their experience, everything is normal. Everything was 100% kosher including businessman, marketing, engineers, showroom, everything.
In September, Hezbollah militants had 5,000 pagers in their pockets.
Israel launched the attack on September 17, then Pagers all over Lebanon started beeping. The devices would explode even if the person failed to press the buttons to read an incoming encrypted message.
The next day Mossad activated the walkie-talkies, some of which exploded at funerals for some of the approximately 30 people killed in the pager attacks.
Gabriel said the goal was more about sending a message than actually killing Hezbollah fighters.
“If he’s just dead, he’s dead. But if he’s injured, you have to take him to the hospital, take care of him. You have to invest money and effort, he said. “And these people without hands and eyes are a living evidence, as they wander in Lebanon, to “mess not with us.” They are walking proof of our superiority throughout the Middle East.”
In the days following the attack, Israel’s air force struck targets across Lebanon, killing thousands. It was Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed when Israel dropped bombs on his bunker.
In November, the war between Israel and Hezbollah, a byproduct of the deadly attack by Hamas militants in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, ended with a ceasefire. More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas militants, health officials have said.
The agent, who used the name “Michael,” said that the day after the pager explosions, people in Lebanon were afraid to turn on their air conditioners for fear they too would explode.
“There is real fear,” he said.
Asked if it was intentional, he said: “We want them to feel vulnerable, which they are. We can’t use the pagers again because we’ve already done it. We’ve already moved on to the next thing. And they have to continue to try to guess what the next thing is.”
