Ex-Mossad Agents Reveal Details Of How They Turned Hezbollah’s Communications Devices Into Bombs

Key details of the Israeli intelligence service’s operation targeting members of Hezbollah with exploding pagers and walkie-talkies in September have been revealed. You can read our reporting of the first wave of explosions here, and the second wave here. Israel didn’t initially admit responsibility for the blasts but was always acknowledged to have been behind them — although exactly how it orchestrated them had remained mysterious.

The new information about the campaign was provided by two recently retired senior Mossad agents, who spoke with the 60 Minutes news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Both wore masks while interviewed and gave false names.

First, it’s worth recapping how the operations played out.

The first wave of explosions, on September 17, targeted pagers used by Hezbollah.

At around 3:30 p.m. local time, it seems the pagers were triggered simultaneously, by a specific message. The message was one that looked, at least, as if it was sent by Hezbollah leadership. The detonation then happened with a slight delay.

The second wave of explosions, on the following day, targeted walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah.

In total, thousands of devices used by the militant group were targeted.

As might be expected for an operation so complex, it took years to shape, with the two Mossad agents — named as “Michael” and “Gabriel” — apparently being key players in its planning. According to CBS, work to weaponize the walkie-talkies began more than a decade before the attacks.

It was already expected that the batteries of the devices were used to carry the explosives, confirmed by Michael, who noted that the walkie-talkies, in particular, were chosen since they would fit into the chest pockets of tactical vests used by the militants.

As for the batteries, these were made in Israel at a Mossad facility, Michael said, and then put in more than 16,000 walkie-talkies, not all of which were used on September 16.

To get these devices into Hezbollah’s hands, they were sold via shell companies, which then infiltrated the group. The chosen price was low enough to ensure that Hezbollah thought it was getting a good deal, but not too low to arouse suspicion.

Since the walkie-talkies were expected to be carried in armored tactical vests, it was considered less likely that the targeted members of the group would be wearing them when they were detonated. After all, these vests would normally only be donned when the militant in question was actually taking part in an operation, or training for one.

To make the operation more effective, weaponized pagers were added to the attack plans, with work on these starting much later, in 2022.

In the case of the pagers — which were seen as much more reliable weapons, since they were carried by the targeted individuals at most times — Mossad discovered that Hezbollah was planning to buy such devices from a Taiwan-based company, Gold Apollo.

The problem with the original Gold Apollo pagers was the size, since they appeared to be too slim to accommodate the explosives required.

This led to Mossad running extensive tests, including detonating larger pagers on dummies, to calibrate the destructive effect. According to Gabriel, the amount of explosive was calculated to injure the targeted fighter, but not anyone next to them. While there are videos that show detonations injuring the targeted individual while leaving passersby unscathed, it’s also the case that other individuals — including at least two children — were killed.

In the end, the finished devices were only able to be used as bombs, with no intelligence collection capabilities, Mossad claimed.

Thought was given to the pager ring tones, to ensure they would sound urgent enough to draw a response. Meanwhile, the timer on the explosive charge was also calculated for maximum effect — the average time to call up the message on a pager after hearing the alert is seven seconds, according to Mossad.

According to Gabriel, Dadi Barnea, the director of Mossad, was initially skeptical that the larger and heavier pager would be attractive to Hezbollah, who would likely favor a lighter and more portable device. But he was convinced otherwise and, meanwhile, Gabriel worked on an advertising campaign.

“We create a pretend world,” Michael explained. “We are a global production company. We write the screenplay, we’re the directors, we’re the producers, we’re the main actors, and the world is our stage.”

The advertising stressed the fact that the pagers were “robust, dustproof and waterproof, with a long battery life.” These claims were presented in fake YouTube ads, backed up with fake online testimonials.

This, of course, led to interest from individuals outside Hezbollah, who Mossad didn’t sell the devices to. Part of the strategy to keep them away from other customers involved quoting them exorbitant prices.

To get the pagers into Hezbollah’s hands, Mossad first had to supply them to Gold Apollo, which they also did via shell companies, including one in Hungary. A licensing partnership with Gold Apollo allowed Mossad to manufacture the pagers, while the Taiwanese firm still retained credibility.

“When they are buying from us, they have zero clue that they are buying from the Mossad. We make like the ‘Truman Show,’ everything is controlled by us behind the scene,” Gabriel told CBS. “In their experience, everything is normal. Everything was 100 percent kosher.”

To ensure that Hezbollah got the pagers, Mossad hired the relevant Gold Apollo saleswoman, who was unaware she was working with Israeli intelligence. The saleswoman offered the first batch of pagers to Hezbollah for free, while follow-on sales provided the militants with around 5,000 pagers by September 2024.

The timing of the pager detonations was driven, to a significant degree, by concerns that the plot might be about to be uncovered.

There was less suspicion around the walkie-talkies, which were detonated the following day, some of them exploding while being carried at funerals of those killed by the pagers.

Very quickly, Lebanon was gripped by panic, with residents, Hezbollah or otherwise, worried about what electronic devices would explode next.

In the event, around 30 people were killed, including two children, in the two attacks.

In addition, 3,000 people were injured, which was also part of Mossad’s plan.

“If he’s just dead, so he’s dead,” Gabriel said. “But if he [is] wounded, you have to take him to the hospital, take care of him. You need to invest money and effort. And those people without hands and eyes are living proof, walking in Lebanon, of ‘don’t mess with us.’”

According to the former Mossad agents, the operation was a major success, undermining Hezbollah’s fighting capacity, decimating its leadership and command and control, and paving the way for the Israeli Air Force attacks that struck targets across Lebanon in the days after.

Before the end of September, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had been killed by an airstrike in Beirut and a ceasefire with the group came into effect at the end of November. You can read all about that operation here.

The retired Mossad agents speaking to CBS were clearly buoyed by the success of the operation targeting walkie-talkies and pagers, and by the diminished fighting capacity of Hezbollah. At the same time, the Israel Defense Forces were also steadily eroding Hamas, with a relentless campaign of bombardment in Gaza. More recently, the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria has prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak of a changing order in the region, with the heart ripped out of three of Iran’s key proxies there.

“After Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Assad regime in Syria, the Houthis are almost the last remaining arm of Iran’s axis of evil,” Netanyahu said last week. “The Houthis are learning, and will learn the hard way, that those who strike Israel will pay a very heavy price for it.”

As to the question of what Mossad does next, we can only guess. But what is clear is that the exploding walkie-talkies and pagers are very unlikely to be attempted again.

“We can’t use the pagers again because we already did that,” Michael told CBS. “We’ve already moved on to the next thing. And they’ll have to keep on trying to guess what the next thing is.”

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com