In a meticulous attack, Israel's Mossad spy agency executed an unprecedented breach of Hezbollah's security by planting explosives inside 5,000 pagers imported by the Lebanese group Hezbollah, months before the detonation on Tuesday.
Though there has been no immediate response from Israel regarding the pager attack in Lebanon, the significance of the blasts grows, as they occurred just hours after Israel announced its intention to extend its war on Gaza and against Hezbollah along the border with Lebanon.
But Hezbollah vowed retaliation for the targeted and concentrated attacks on its military personnel, which killed at least nine, including the son of a prominent Hezbollah MP, Mohammad Mahdi Ammar, while Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was also among those wounded in the attack.
The explosions, which were triggered remotely, resulted in a death toll of at least nine people, including two Hezbollah fighters. More than 2,750 individuals sustained injuries, with over 200 critically wounded, many suffering severe injuries to the face, hands, and stomach.
The devices, reportedly sourced from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo, were delivered to Hezbollah earlier this year. Although the Taiwanese company denied manufacturing the pagers, stating they were produced by a European company named BAC under a licence to use Gold Apollo's branding, investigations indicated that Mossad had intercepted and modified the devices during the production process. The explosives were expertly concealed within the pagers, going undetected by Hezbollah for months.
According to Lebanese security sources, Mossad implanted a tiny, hard-to-detect explosive board inside the pagers, which could be remotely triggered by sending a coded message. Approximately 3,000 of the modified pagers exploded simultaneously when the detonation code was transmitted, wreaking havoc across various locations in Lebanon.
Hezbollah members, including fighters and medics, were among the most affected as the group had been using pagers for internal communication in an attempt to evade Israeli surveillance.
The incident marks one of the largest security breaches Hezbollah has experienced in decades, severely damaging the group’s operational capabilities. It comes at a time when tensions between Israel and Hezbollah are escalating, exacerbated by the ongoing conflict between Israel and Gaza, where Hezbollah is aligned with Hamas.
Cross-border skirmishes have been frequent since the outbreak of the Gaza conflict on 7 October, with rockets, artillery fire, and missiles exchanged daily, while Israeli jets have been conducting airstrikes deep into Lebanese territory.
The explosions were a devastating blow to Hezbollah, which has already suffered significant losses since February, with at least 170 of its fighters, including senior commanders, killed in targeted Israeli strikes.
The attack also raised concerns about the broader implications for regional stability. While Hezbollah has declared it does not seek a full-scale war with Israel, the group has vowed retaliation for what it calls a "massacre."
Hezbollah has framed the attack as part of a larger Israeli campaign against its resistance efforts, particularly its support for Gaza in the ongoing conflict. Despite the threat of retaliation, analysts believe that the pager blasts are not indicative of an imminent Israeli ground offensive, but rather a demonstration of Mossad's capability to infiltrate Hezbollah’s ranks.
In response to the devastating breach, Hezbollah has launched an internal investigation, seeking to identify how the devices could have been compromised at the production level without being detected. The group had relied on pagers as an alternative to mobile phones after its leadership warned in early February that mobile devices posed a significant risk of tracking and surveillance by Israeli intelligence.
The distribution of pagers to its members was part of a broader war plan designed to close intelligence gaps and enhance the security of its communications. However, this strategy now appears to have backfired dramatically, leaving Hezbollah scrambling to reassess its communication protocols.
The aftermath of the explosions has placed additional strain on Lebanon’s already fragile political and security landscape, as the attack has also intensified fears of a regional conflict, with growing concerns that continued escalations between Hezbollah and Israel could draw in other players, including Iran and the United States.
Despite the potential for a broader conflict, diplomatic efforts to de-escalate tensions continue. Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has reportedly conveyed to his U.S. counterpart, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, that the window for a diplomatic solution to the standoff with Hezbollah is closing. Nevertheless, with Hezbollah’s leadership vowing retaliation and Israel showing no signs of relenting, the situation remains highly volatile.