Israel's Mossad spy agency planted a small amount of explosives inside 5000 Taiwan-made pagers ordered by Lebanese militant group Hezbollah five months before Tuesday's detonations, multiple reports claimed, citing senior Lebanese security sources.
Pagers, wireless communication devices used by thousands of members of the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, exploded simultaneously across Lebanon and parts of Syria on Tuesday, killing at least nine people and wounding scores. Nearly 100 cases of blasts were reported in Syria.
A senior Lebanese security source who spoke to news agency Reuters alleged that the pagers exploded when a coded message was sent to them, simultaneously activating the explosives.
"Mossad injected a board inside the device that has explosive material that receives a code. It's very hard to detect it through any means. Even with any device or scanner," the source told Reuters.
The Iran-backed militant group had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based manufacturer Gold Apollo, which were smuggled into the country between April and May. A security source identified the model of one exploded pager as the AP924 variant. Images of the damaged pagers also revealed a design and stickers on the back consistent with those produced by Gold Apollo.
The plot appears to have been many months in the making, according to the sources.
Sources who spoke to Sky News Arabia alleged that the Israeli spy agency placed a quantity of PETN, a highly explosive material, on the batteries of the devices, and detonated them by raising the temperature of the batteries from afar.
Qatar funded Al Jazeera channel, which also spoke to security sources, reported that the weight of the explosive placed in each device was below 20 grams, and that the pagers that were blown up were imported five months ago.
An investigation is being conducted into how the explosive charge was activated, the source added.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah vowed to retaliate against Israel after accusing it of detonating pagers across Lebanon on Tuesday. The Iran-backed militant group stated that Israel would receive "its fair punishment" for the blasts.
Condemning the attack, Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary called it an "Israeli aggression."
However, Israeli authorities or the army have not commented on the blasts and subsequent allegations.
Hezbollah militants have been using pagers as a low-tech means of communication in an attempt to evade Israeli location tracking. The group has been in armed conflict with Israel since Hamas's October 7 attack.
Israel has allegedly used similar tactics in the past as well. According to a former US National Security Agency intelligence analyst, David Kennedy, Israel had allegedly planted 15 grams of RDX explosive in a mobile phone to kill Hamas leader Yahya Ayyash in 1996. The device detonated when he made a call to his father. Israel's intelligence agency Shin Bet was involved in this.
