Israel has the ability to penetrate deep into the enemy's infrastructure.
Pagers and walkie-talkies, considered obsolete communication devices, were used as weapons in a unique attack in Lebanon, resulting in a series of explosions over two consecutive days, killing 32 people and wounding more than 3,000 across the country. More details about the walkie-talkie explosions have yet to emerge.
The victims were mainly members of Hezbollah, a political party with a paramilitary arm that has a stake in Lebanese political affairs and is Israel's archenemy. Mossad, an Israeli intelligence service, was expected to be blamed for the coordinated attacks. Israel did not respond to the explosions.
But how did that happen?
The New York Times spoke to three Israeli intelligence officials who said that BAC Consulting, a Hungary-based manufacturer of the pagers, was a shell company set up by Mossad to manipulate the devices at the source before they were shipped to Lebanon. The report alleges that BAC Consulting was under contract to manufacture the devices on behalf of Gold Apollo, the Taiwanese company whose pagers exploded on Tuesday, killing nine people. The report added that at least two other shell companies had been set up to mask the real identities of the people making the pagers.
BAC didn’t take regular customers, and Hezbollah was important to them. The batteries were laced with the explosive Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate (PETN), a very powerful explosive material. Reuters reported that the new pagers contained three grams of explosives and that Hezbollah had “gone undetected” for months. On Tuesday, Hezbollah members received a message on their page, thinking it was from their commander, but it caused explosions across the country.
An exploded walkie-talkie
“Bury it or put it in a box”
The Israelis began targeting Hezbollah members with cyberattacks, hacking devices, remotely controlling phone cameras, and monitoring enemy activity.
In February, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah concluded that the operatives were tracking their phones and that it was important to move to low-tech as Israel moved to advanced targeting technology. The urgency came after 170 fighters had been killed in targeted Israeli strikes in Lebanon, including a senior commander and a senior Hamas official in Beirut.
He warned them, saying, “Bury it or put it in an iron box and lock it.” The company was supplying beepers to Lebanon, but on a small scale. The alleged Israeli plot had been in the works for more than a year, and Nasrallah’s plea to fellow Hezbollah members was the final nail in the coffin.
Israel has the ability to penetrate deep into enemy infrastructure. In 2021, Israel used automated AI-enabled weapons to assassinate Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh on the outskirts of Tehran.
Today, Hezbollah's leader said the Israeli attack on communications equipment “crossed all limits and is an unprecedented blow to the group.” Meanwhile, Lebanese state media reported that Israeli warplanes broke the sound barrier over Beirut, that is, went supersonic.
Spotlight on 'Unit 8200'
Reuters reported that Unit 8200 played a role in the development phase of the operation. The report said the unit was responsible for testing how explosive material should be introduced into the production process.
Unit 8200, also known as Cyberspies, is a highly specialized military group that develops and uses intelligence gathering tools similar to the U.S. National Security Agency.
Unit 8200 develops and operates advanced surveillance tools and cyber defense systems, and is credited with high-profile operations. It played a key role in the 2005-2010 Stuxnet virus attack that damaged Iranian nuclear centrifuges. In 2017, it was allegedly behind a cyberattack on Lebanon’s state-owned telecom company Ogero, disrupting communications. The unit also helped foil an ISIS plot in 2018, helping to thwart a planned attack on a civilian airliner flying from Australia to the UAE.
