Israel fast-tracked the detonation of thousands of explosive-packed pagers used by Hezbollah after becoming concerned that the plot was about to be foiled, according to reports.
Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, was claimed to have planted explosives in 5,000 pagers being used by the Lebanese group, designated a terror organisation by governments including in the US and UK.
Twelve people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded, including Iran’s envoy to Lebanon, when around 3,000 of the devices were triggered when a coded message was reportedly sent to them.
Hezbollah was using the pagers after scaling back use of mobile phones as they believed they could be vulnerable to Israeli spy operations.
The pager plot was an unprecedented Hezbollah security failure.
The Iran-backed group has vowed to retaliate with “harsh punishment” against Israel, whose military declined to comment on the blasts.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was due to make an address on Thursday.
Some reports suggested that the pager explosions were the start of an escalation by Israel of its conflict against Hezbollah.
One senior Lebanese source said the devices had been modified by Israel’s spy service “at the production level.”
“The Mossad injected a board inside of the device that has explosive material that receives a code. It’s very hard to detect,” the source said.
Israeli and US sources told media outlets Axios and Al-Monitor that the explosions were detonated early amid Israeli concerns that Hezbollah was onto the plot.
“This would easily be the biggest counterintelligence failure that Hezbollah has had in decades,” said Jonathan Panikoff, the US government’s former deputy national intelligence officer on the Middle East.
Ching-Kuang, founder of Taiwan-based Gold Apollo, said the pagers used in the explosion were made by a company in Europe that had the right to use the firm’s brand.
“We only provide brand trademark authorisation and have no involvement in the design or manufacturing of this product,” Gold Apollo added in a statement.
Hezbollah launched more strikes against Israel almost immediately after Hamas’ October 7 attack which saw around 1,200 people in Israel killed and more than 200 taken hostage back to Gaza.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the besieged territory since October 7, with over half of the fatalities being women and children.
Israel states that it has killed over 17,000 militants.
The war has caused vast destruction and displaced about 90 per cent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million.
Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire daily.
Hezbollah has said it does not seek a wider war but would fight if Israel launched one.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday that the window was closing for a diplomatic solution to the standoff.
Britain and America have been calling for efforts to de-escalate the conflict in the Middle East.
