Thousands of pagers exploded in a coordinated attack across Lebanon yesterday, targeting the US-designated terrorist group Hezbollah. The blasts resulted in at least nine deaths and 2,800 injuries in a country already affected by the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Hezbollah, which governs Lebanon, has blamed Israel for the attack. During the Gaza conflict, Hezbollah supported Hamas and engaged in cross-border clashes with Israel in solidarity with the Palestinian group.
No country or organization has officially claimed responsibility for the attack. However, suspicions are falling on Israel, raising questions about the capabilities of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency known for executing targeted operations abroad.
Pager Bombs: A Reality?
Pagers, once popular but now largely obsolete due to the rise of mobile phones, are wireless devices used for text messaging but not voice calls. Hezbollah employed pagers to avoid location tracking by Israel.
The pagers that exploded yesterday were reportedly equipped with explosives from Taiwan, according to The New York Times. The newspaper, citing unnamed officials, reported that Taiwanese firm Gold Apollo placed the order and that the pagers were tampered with by Israeli agents before arriving in Lebanon.
The order, which involved approximately 3,000 pagers, primarily consisted of Gold Apollo’s AR-924 model, the NYT reported.
Israeli intelligence is said to have infiltrated the production process, installing explosives that could be remotely triggered without detection, according to AFP, citing a Brussels-based security analyst.
According to Reuters, Mossad had been planning the attack for months. They equipped the Taiwan-made pagers with up to 3 grams of explosives, which went undetected by Hezbollah, as reported by Lebanese sources.
The explosives were triggered when a codeword was sent, causing about 3,000 pagers to detonate, according to the news agency.
Gold Apollo founder Hsu Ching-Kuang has denied that his company manufactured the pagers, claiming instead that a European firm with permission to use his brand name produced them. This claim has not been independently verified.
**Why Israel Is Being Accused**
Early Tuesday morning, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office stated that the safe return of residents evacuated from northern Israel—adjacent to southern Lebanon—was one of its war goals.
Hours later, explosions occurred in Lebanon.
While Israel has not officially claimed responsibility, Mossad’s reputation for executing sophisticated remote attacks on foreign soil has led to speculation about its involvement.
The most recent incident linked to Israel was the assassination of a top Hamas commander in Iran. According to The Telegraph, Mossad was responsible for Ismail Haniyeh’s killing in a blast at a high-security VIP compound in an upscale Tehran neighborhood. The New York Times reported that the bomb was smuggled in months earlier and detonated remotely after Haniyeh entered the specific room.
Mossad also played a significant role in ‘Operation Wrath of God,’ also known as Bayonet, which was launched to avenge the murders of 11 Israeli athletes by Palestinian operatives at the 1972 Munich Olympics. During this operation, Mossad used telephones both to track and to kill targets. One notable incident involved the assassination of a top Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader in Paris, where a bomb exploded after he answered a phone call, introducing what became known as telephone bombs.
As technology evolved, mobile phones became the next target. In 1996, a Hamas bomb-making expert was killed when his mobile phone exploded after he answered a call.
These incidents, whether linked or not, demonstrate a pattern of using communication devices—telephones, mobile phones, and now pagers—as weapons.
