The pagers used by Hezbollah militants were designed and programmed by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. To read the encrypted message, it was necessary to press the buttons with both hands at the same time; This activated the explosives inside the device, the Washington Post reports, citing sources in the United States, Israel and the Middle East.
According to the publication, the Mossad began introducing mined radios into Lebanon in 2015. Back then, the devices contained huge batteries, hidden explosives and a system to listen to militants. The Mossad could have blown up the devices earlier, but decided to develop new, more compact pagers.
In the new pagers that Israel supplied to Lebanon under the Apollo brand, the explosives could not be detected even when dismantled, WP interlocutors claim. According to sources, the Taiwanese brand Apollo was needed as cover, and the company itself was unaware that proposals were being sent to Hezbollah on its behalf.
The new pager, which weighed about 85 grams, contained more powerful explosives, according to the publication’s interlocutors. Other benefits offered to Hezbollah included a more powerful battery and wired charging capabilities. The intelligence service has developed a special two-step procedure necessary to view protected messages.
“To read the message you had to press two buttons. In practice, this meant using both hands.” – said one of the sources.
The resulting explosion would almost certainly leave users with “both hands injured” and “unable to fight,” he said.
On September 17, thousands of Apollo pagers rang or vibrated simultaneously across Lebanon and Syria. An inscription in Arabic appeared on the screen: “You have received an encrypted message.” Hezbollah fighters followed instructions to test the coded messages by pressing two buttons, causing the devices to explode. Later, hundreds of other devices exploded thanks to a remote signal, writes WP.
As a result of the first series of explosions on September 17, 4 thousand people were injured and dozens died. According to Al-Hadath, about 500 Hezbollah members lost their sight due to the pager explosions. Hezbollah blamed Israel for the incident and promised “strong retaliation.” The authorities of the latter claimed that Tel Aviv had nothing to do with the explosions, RBC recalls.
