BEIRUT: Israel’s spy agency Mossad planted explosives inside 5,000 pagers imported by Hezbollah months before Tuesday’s detonations, according to Reuters news agency.
The operation was an unparalleled Hezbollah security breach that saw thousands of pagers detonate across Lebanon, killing around nine people and injuring about 3,000 others, including fighters and Iran’s envoy to Beirut, Reuters news agency reported.
The Lebanese security source told the Reuters that the pagers were from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo, but the firm said in a statement that it did not produce the devices. It stated that they were made by a firm called BAC which has a licence to use its brand, but gave no more information. Iran-backed Hezbollah has pledged to retaliate against Israel, whose army declined to comment on the explosion.
In a statement, Hezbollah said on Wednesday that the resistance will continue today, like any other day, its operations to assist Gaza and its people and its resistance which is a separate path from the harsh punishment that the criminal enemy (Israel) should await in reply to Tuesday’s carnage.
Some sources told the Reuters news agency that the plan appears to have been many months in the making. The top Lebanese security source stated that the group had ordered about 5,000 beepers from Gold Apollo, which some sources say were brought into Lebanon earlier this year. The pager explosions came at a time of mounting concern regarding tensions between Hezbollah and Israel, which have been engaged in cross-border warfare since the Gaza war erupted last October.
While the conflict in Gaza has been Israel’s main focus since the Oct. 7, the unwarranted situation along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon has also fueled fears of a regional conflict that could drag in Iran and the US.
