Revealed: How Mossad boobytrapped 5,000 Hezbollah pagers with explosives in top secret plot hatched TWO years ago – and the feature hidden in plain sight that allowed it to cause maximum damage

The Mossad plot to booby trap more than 5,000 pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah with powerful explosives had been in the making for two years, according to reports.

At least 40 people were killed and thousands were injured over two days in Lebanon in mid-September after Israel detonated explosives embedded in communications equipment used by the terrorist group.

The explosions, which killed both terrorists and Lebanese civilians, immediately called Hezbollah’s security practices into question.

The Washingtonpost reported that Mossad, Israel’s shadowy foreign intelligence and operations agency, began its plot to fill the pagers with explosives in 2022, more than a year before Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack.

The paging plan came after Mossad was able to fill Hezbollah’s walkie-talkies with explosives as early as 2015, leaving them inactive until they had to be taken out.

Hezbollah, which has long been an enemy of Israel, used the low-level technology to communicate with its fighters to prevent intelligence gathering by its enemies.

Although the pagers and walkie-talkies were effective for a while, the Post revealed that the Mossad had begun deploying booby-trap devices in Lebanon nine years ago, with each device equipped with an oversized battery pack, a hidden explosive and a transmission system that allowed Israel to listen in on communications.

Explosions rocked Lebanon in mid-September

At least 40 people were killed and thousands injured over two days in Lebanon in mid-September after Israel detonated explosives embedded in communications equipment.

For years, Israelis were content to eavesdrop on Hezbollah and cling to the option of detonating them whenever they wanted.

But when the Mossad saw that a new product was ripe for exploitation, it decided to up the ante by purchasing large numbers of Taiwanese Apollo-branded pagers, riding on a widely recognized trademark and a product line with worldwide distribution and without observable ties to Israeli or Jewish interests that could have aroused Hezbollah’s suspicions.

The sales pitch to Hezbollah came from a Hezbollah-trusted marketing official with links to Apollo, whose name was not revealed by the sources the Post spoke to.

She sold the terror group the AR924 model, an Israeli official said: “She contacted Hezbollah and explained to them why the larger pager with the larger battery was better than the original model.”

One of the main selling points of the AR924 was that it allowed charging with a cable. And the batteries lasted longer,” the official said.

The Mossad pagers, each weighing less than an ounce, contained a battery that contained a small amount of a powerful explosive, enough to cause serious damage.

The bomb battery component was reportedly so carefully hidden that it evaded Hezbollah’s attempts to disassemble and analyze the devices.

Photo taken on September 18, 2024 shows a wireless communications device in the hand of a Hezbollah member, whose battery was removed after a wireless communications device exploded during a funeral in Beirut, Lebanon

Thousands were killed and injured in the pager explosions

Scenes posted on

Another trick the Mossad had up its sleeve to ensure that as many people as possible were injured or killed was to ensure that the signal to activate the explosives required two hands.

The pagers had a special “coded messages” feature that could only be accessed if the user held the device with both hands, which the Mossad used as a cover for instructing them to detonate the explosive.

The ensuing explosion would almost certainly “injure both hands,” one official said, leaving users “unable to fight.”

But it was not just Hezbollah fighters who were killed in the attack. Children, including eight-year-old Fatima Abdullah, were killed in the pager explosions.

The young girl was studying in her family’s kitchen at their home in the village of Saraain El Faouqa in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley when she heard a wireless pager.

Her friend, nine-year-old Ali Abdullah, told Andalou: ‘Fatima was sitting on the sofa studying when the pager went off. She picked it up to give it to her father who was outside, but it exploded in her hand.”

A man walks through the rubble at a damaged site in the aftermath of Israeli attacks on Beirut’s southern suburbs

Debris piles up in the aftermath of Israeli attacks on Beirut’s southern suburbs on October 6, 2024

A view shows damaged buildings and vehicles in the aftermath of Israeli attacks on Beirut’s southern suburbs, amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces

Her aunt, also called Fatima, added: ‘Fatima had just returned from her first day of school full of enthusiasm. She was a top student and loved by everyone.’

Since the explosions on September 17 and 18, violence between Hezbollah and Israel has increased dramatically, with the two groups currently fighting heavily in southern Lebanon.

A huge fireball lit up the sky and plumes of smoke rose over southern Beirut overnight as Israel unleashed intense airstrikes on Hezbollah, almost a year after the outbreak of the Gaza war.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati called on the international community to put pressure on Israel for a ceasefire as a new attack hit the capital’s southern suburbs.

Israeli forces were on high alert ahead of the anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack that sparked the war.

After a devastating year-long conflict in Gaza, Israel has now shifted its attention north to Hezbollah, Hamas’ Iran-backed ally in Lebanon.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency said Hezbollah’s stronghold in southern Beirut was hit by more than 30 attacks, which were heard across the city. A gas station and a warehouse for medical supplies were hit.

People gather as smoke rises from a mobile shop in Sidon, Lebanon, September 18, 2024

Lebanese arrived at a blood donation center in Beirut to donate blood at the request of the Ministry of Health after the pager explosions

“The strikes were like an earthquake,” says shopkeeper Mehdi Zeiter (60).

The Israeli military said it has attacked weapons storage facilities and infrastructure while taking measures “to reduce the risk of harm to civilians.”

AFPTV footage showed a huge fireball over a residential area, followed by a loud bang and secondary explosions. Smoke was still coming from the site after sunrise.

In the Sabra area, near the southern suburbs, dozens of people, some carrying bags on foot and others on motorcycles, fled one of the most intense bombardments of the Israeli-Hezbollah war.

Hezbollah said it attacked Israeli forces with artillery after they tried to infiltrate towards Khallat Shuaib in Blida, southern Lebanon.

According to a statement, fighters fired rockets at Israeli forces during the evacuation of “dead and wounded soldiers” in the Menara border area after midnight.

Hezbollah also said it launched attack drones against an Israeli military base.