According to security experts, it appears that Israel has infiltrated the supply chain and implanted explosives in pagers ordered by Hezbollah in Lebanon, causing over a thousand pagers to explode simultaneously and severely crippling this Iranian-backed extremist group in the Middle East.
Multiple foreign media reports have indicated that this was a plan months in the making.
American officials briefed on the matter stated that these pagers (known as “呼叫器” in Taiwan and “call機” in Hong Kong) were seemingly ordered by Hezbollah from Taiwan’s Gold Apollo Communications, mostly consisting of the AP924 model with three other Gold Apollo models included.
A senior Lebanese security official and another source mentioned that Israel’s Mossad spy agency planted small explosives in 5,000 pagers.
Analysts believe that Israel disrupted these devices prior to their delivery, allowing them to explode at a specific time. Several sources mentioned that these pagers were delivered to Lebanon in the spring.
The timing of the pager order and their arrival in Lebanon remain uncertain.
However, Gold Apollo’s Chairman Xu Qingguang stated on Wednesday (September 18) that the pagers involved in the explosions were not manufactured in Taiwan but by a European company.
He added that this European company was authorized to use the Gold Apollo brand.
“That is not our product; it just carries our brand,” Xu said. “We are a responsible company, and this incident is very embarrassing for us.”
This unprecedented synchronized attack caused the pagers to explode at various Hezbollah locations across Lebanon, resulting in at least 9 deaths and nearly 3,000 injuries, including the Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon.
Hezbollah stated that Israel would “pay the price” for the explosion incident. The Israeli military refused to comment on the explosions.
Hezbollah fighters have been using pagers as a means of communication to evade Israeli tracking. Analysts believe that Israel’s actions have indeed targeted Hezbollah’s vulnerability, depriving them of a primary communication method.
A source told Reuters, “Mossad placed a board containing explosive material inside the equipment, which could receive codes. It was very difficult to detect by various methods.”
The source mentioned that around 3,000 pagers exploded upon receiving the code information, activating the explosives simultaneously.
Another security source revealed that each pager contained approximately 3 grams of explosives, which Hezbollah had failed to detect for months.
Images of the destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed that their format and the stickers on the back were consistent with pagers manufactured by Gold Apollo headquartered in Taipei.
Former US intelligence official Jonathan Panikoff stated, “This is likely the most serious counterintelligence mistake by Hezbollah in decades.”