Reuters Reveals Details Of Blowing Hezbollah Pagers Operation
- 16.10.2024, 16:22
A “legend” was specially created for the devices.
Reuters has published an article revealing details of the operation that ended with the explosion of Hezbollah pagers, allegedly carried out by Israeli intelligence services. As a result of this incident, 39 people were killed and about 3.4 thousand were injured. The explosions of the pagers were followed by the explosions of radios, and ultimately the Israeli Defense Forces launched a ground offensive against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
It was previously reported that the pagers were specially made, and that Hezbollah representatives were misled and purchased these devices for their members. Reuters shares new details.
Citing Lebanese sources, the publication confirms that the explosive device was hidden in the pager's battery.A thin, square sheet with six grams of white pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) plastic explosive was squeezed between two rectangular battery cells, according to the Lebanese source and photos.The remaining space between the battery cells could not be seen in the photos but was occupied by a strip of highly flammable material that acted as the detonator, the source said.
Without any metal components, the material used to trigger detonation had an edge: like the plastic explosives, it was not detected by X-ray.
Upon receiving the pagers in February, Hezbollah looked for the presence of explosives, two people familiar with the matter said, putting them through airport security scanners to see if they triggered alarms. Nothing suspicious was reported.
However, the presence of the bomb could have raised suspicions. The battery capacity was significantly lower than the standard for such devices — only 2.22 watt-hours instead of the usual 8.75 watt-hours. Hezbollah members noticed that the battery was charging faster than expected, but did not attach any importance to it.
The weak point of the operation was that neither the pager model nor the battery model were available on the market — they were specially designed. The organizers of the operation created a “legend” for the device, including fake pages on the Internet. In addition, they obtained permission from the head of the Taiwanese company Gold Apollo, Hsu Ching-kuan, to produce a special model of the pager under the company's brand. This model was added to the Gold Apollo website, but it was impossible to buy it from the Taiwanese manufacturer. As a result, they managed to deceive Hezbollah buyers. After the operation was completed, all the fake sites were removed, but they can be found in the cache and web archives, the agency reports.
Following the blasts, Hezbollah launched an internal investigation and, according to Reuters, uncovered details of the sales negotiations, including that the seller had been heavily discounting the price of the pagers. However, the lead investigator, Nabil Kaouk, was killed in an Israeli airstrike.