The journalists revealed new details of the attacks using Hezbollah communications. According to three New York Times intelligence sources, the Hungarian pager company was backed by Israel and was created with the aim of attacking Hezbollah.
Sources claim that there were two other similar companies whose main task was to conceal the fact that the pagers were being prepared by Israeli intelligence. This Hungarian company served regular customers and sent them pagers periodically. However, the pagers for Hezbollah members were manufactured separately and were equipped with explosives hidden in batteries. Since 2022, they began to be supplied to Lebanon.
Kursor previously reported that Israel placed explosive devices in pagers ordered by Hezbollah from a Taiwanese company. This was discussed in a New York Times report that was published after a recent spate of pager explosions.
Citing unnamed U.S. and other foreign officials, the report said explosives were placed in the Gold Apollo devices before they were shipped to Lebanon. The devices also had a built-in switch for remote detonation.
The explosions occurred after Hezbollah leaders sent a message using pagers, two officials said. The pagers began ringing and exploded a few seconds later.
In total, more than 3,000 pagers were ordered and some were delivered to Hezbollah allies in Syria and Iran, the US newspaper reported. However, as noted in the report, the explosion occurred only in those pagers that were turned on and receiving messages at the time.
The exact date on which Hezbollah placed the order and received the pagers is not known. However, according to the report, earlier this year, the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, ordered his followers to give up their mobile phones for fear of Israeli wiretapping.
Previously, Kursor discussed how Israel estimates Hezbollah’s losses as a result of pager explosions.
