Two former senior Israeli intelligence officers revealed details of a decade-long Mossad operation to CBS.
A CBS report, citing two recently retired Mossad agents who allegedly led the operation, detailed a more than ten-year effort culminating in September explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies in Lebanon.
The operation began with walkie-talkies, Mossad creating explosive batteries and using shell companies to infiltrate the supply chain.
“We create a pretend world. We are a global production company: We write the screenplay, we’re the directors, we’re the producers, we’re the main actors,” one former agent stated. The agents reportedly sold over 16,000 explosive walkie-talkies to Hezbollah.
Mossad then focused on devices Hezbollah members carried constantly: pagers. According to the agents, extensive testing ensured injuries to the pager owner with minimal collateral damage.
The devices lacked intelligence capabilities; they were simply small bombs, one agent confirmed: “There’s almost no way how to tap it.”
Mossad learned Hezbollah sourced pagers from Gold Apollo in Taiwan, establishing further shell companies, including one in Hungary, to secretly secure a partnership with Gold Apollo without revealing their true intentions. Mossad manufactured the pagers, utilizing their Gold Apollo partnership.
They even employed Gold Apollo’s Hezbollah saleswoman and launched a deceptive online advertising campaign, including fabricated testimonials.
“When [Hezbollah] are buying from us, they have zero clue that they are buying from the Mossad. We make like the ‘Truman Show,’ everything is controlled by us behind the scene,” one agent said. By September 2024, Hezbollah possessed approximately 5,000 of these pagers, according to CBS.
The goal, the agents admitted, was to cripple and intimidate their enemies. “We want them to feel vulnerable, which they are,” one stated. Another explained that the victims served as a living warning:
“Those people without hands and eyes are living proof, walking in Lebanon, of ‘don’t mess with us’,” he told CBS. The September 17 attacks resulted in at least 42 deaths, including 12 civilians, and over 3,500 injuries. Israel initially denied involvement but Prime Minister Netanyahu later claimed responsibility.
The operation drew international condemnation. UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Turk called it “shocking” and “unacceptable,” a violation of human rights. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov labeled it a “glaring example of terrorist methods.”