In response to the massive pager attack by Hezbollah in Lebanon, the elite Israeli Defense Forces Unit 8200 has come under scrutiny. A Western security source revealed that this unit was involved in orchestrating the operation.
According to Reuters, Israeli officials have remained silent about this bold intelligence operation. On Tuesday (September 17), the operation resulted in 12 deaths and thousands of Hezbollah members being injured. On Wednesday (18th), there was another incident where the wireless radios used by Hezbollah were detonated, causing at least one fatality.
A senior security official in Lebanon disclosed that the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, responsible for this complex operation, planted a small amount of explosives inside the 5,000 pagers ordered by Hezbollah.
A Western security source informed Reuters that Unit 8200 is a military unit separate from spy agencies and was involved in the planning stages of the operation against Hezbollah, which had been brewing for over a year.
Sources stated that Unit 8200 was involved in technical testing on how to incorporate explosive materials during the manufacturing process.
Former military intelligence officer and current head of the Israel Defense and Security Forum, Yossi Kuperwasser, stated it is still unclear if the military intelligence department was involved in the attack.
However, he mentioned that the members of Unit 8200 are among the most talented and intelligent personnel in the Israeli military, serving in the core units of Israel’s defense capabilities.
“They face tremendous and daunting challenges, we need the best talents to be involved,” he said.
This unit and its select group of young soldiers are responsible for developing and operating intelligence gathering tools, often compared to the United States’ National Security Agency (NSA).
In 2018, the Israeli Defense Forces stated in a rare public declaration that this unit helped thwart ISIS’ attempts to launch airstrikes against Western countries. The statement highlighted the unit’s operations ranging from intelligence collection and network defense to “technical attacks and strikes.”
Reportedly, Unit 8200 was also involved in the “Stuxnet” virus attack that crippled Iran’s nuclear centrifuge facilities and a series of high-profile operations outside Israel. However, Israel has never confirmed the authenticity of such reports.
This unit is essentially Israel’s early warning system, like other defense and security agencies, faced some criticisms for not timely detecting Hamas’ attack on Israel’s southern region on October 7 last year.
The commander of the system announced his resignation last week. In his resignation letter published in the Israeli media, he admitted to not fulfilling his mission.
The unit is renowned for its work culture emphasizing creative thinking to solve unprecedented or unimaginable problems. Based on this mindset, some retired members of the unit have founded Israel’s high-tech industry and some of the largest companies.
Avi Shua, a retired member of Unit 8200, mentioned, “Whether it’s software vulnerabilities, mathematical and encryption issues, or hacking problems… you have to be able to independently solve these problems.” He later co-founded the cloud security unicorn company, Orca Security.
Another former member of Unit 8200, Kobi Samboursky, now the managing partner of Glilot Capital Partners, an early-stage investment fund focusing on cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, highlighted the high turnover rate of young recruits replacing veterans in the unit.
Samboursky emphasized, “The most crucial point here is the culture of ‘I can do it,’ where everything is possible.”