Pagers and walkie-talkies, considered outdated modes of communication, were weaponised for a one-of-its-kind attack in Lebanon, resulting in a series of explosions for two consecutive days, killing 32 and injuring over 3,000 across the country. More details are yet to emerge on the walkie-talkie blasts.
The victims were mostly members of Hezbollah, a political party with a paramilitary that has a stake in Lebanese political affairs and is the arch-nemesis of Israel. It was expected that Mossad -an Israeli spy agency - would be blamed for the coordinated strikes. Israel has not reacted to the explosions.
But, how did it happen?
The New York Times spoke to three Israeli intelligence officers who said BAC Consulting, a Hungary-based manufacturer of pagers, was a shell company set up by Mossad to rig the devices at the source before shipping them to Lebanon. The report claims that BAC Consulting was under a contract to produce the devices on behalf of Gold Apollo, the Taiwanese company whose pagers exploded and killed nine on Tuesday. The report added that at least two other shell companies were created as well to mask the real identities of the people creating the pagers.
BAC did not take ordinary clients and Hezbollah mattered to them. The batteries were laced with explosive Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate (PETN), a very powerful explosive material. Reuters reported that three grams of explosives were hidden in the new pagers and had gone "undetected" by Hezbollah for months. On Tuesday, the Hezbollah members received a message on their page, thinking it was from their commander but it triggered explosions across the country.
An exploded walkie-talkie
"Bury It Or Put It In A Box"
The Israelis began targeting Hezbollah operatives through cyberattacks by hacking devices, remotely controlling cameras of phones and monitoring the activities of the enemy.
In February, Hezbollah Chief, Hassan Nasrallah, concluded that the agent tracking is their phones and it's important to switch to low-tech when Israel moved to sophisticated technology for targeting. The urgency came after 170 fighters had already been killed in targeted Israeli strikes on Lebanon, including one senior commander and a top Hamas official in Beirut.
He warned them and said, "Bury it or put it in an iron box and lock it." The company had been supplying pagers to Lebanon but on a low scale. The purported Israeli plot was in the making for over a year and Nasrallah's request to fellow Hezbollah members was the last nail in the coffin.
Israel holds the capability to strike deep into the enemy's infrastructure. In 2021, Israel used automated AI-assisted weapons to assassinate Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh on the outskirts of Tehran.
Today, the Hezbollah chief said Israel's attack on communication devices has "crossed all red lines and has come as an unprecedented blow to the group." Meanwhile, Lebanese state media reported that Israeli warplanes broke the sound barrier over Beirut i.e. they went supersonic.
Spotlight On 'Unit 8200'
Reuters reported that Unit 8200 played a role in the development stage of the operation. The report said that the unit was responsible for testing how to insert explosive material within the manufacturing process.
Unit 8200, also known as Cyber spies, is a highly specialised military group that develops and operates intelligence-gathering tools, comparable to the US National Security Agency.
Unit 8200 develops and operates advanced surveillance tools and cyber defence systems and is credited with high-profile operations. It played a key role in the Stuxnet virus attack from 2005 to 2010, which damaged Iranian nuclear centrifuges. In 2017, it was allegedly behind a cyberattack on Lebanon's state telecom company, Ogero, disrupting communications. The unit also contributed to thwarting an ISIS plot in 2018, helping to prevent a planned attack on a civilian airliner travelling from Australia to the UAE.
