Pager explosions in Lebanon would have been caused by detonators implanted by Israel in communication devicesaccording to information obtained by The New York Times. The death toll rose to 12, following case updates released on Wednesday (18).
Sources heard by the newspaper, including authorities with access to the investigations into the incident and a US official, said that the pagers were purchased by Hezbollah from Gold Apollobased in Taiwan. The company, in turn, claims that the equipment was produced by BAC Consulting KFT, from Hungary.
Getty Images/Reproduction In a supply chain attack, these devices were allegedly tampered with by agents of the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, according to the report. The interception allowed the deployment of an explosive charge of approximately 50 g, in addition to a switch to facilitate remote detonation.
Hezbollah has ordered more than 3,000 pagers from Gold Apollo, which are being distributed among the group's members in Lebanon and allies based in Syria and Iran. The devices replaced smartphones to avoid tracking by Israelsince they do not have a geolocation system.
Coordinated explosions
The operation included a strategy to increase the lethality of the explosions. At around 3:30 p.m. (local time), the beepers, as these devices are called in Brazil, emitted a message received signal, allegedly sent by the leadership of the paramilitary organization.
This made more people approached the devices or handled them at the time of the explosionaccording to the report. Moments after the false message, the implanted charge was detonated, leaving around 2,800 injured in several regions of Lebanon, in addition to causing the deaths already mentioned.
In an interview with Reutersa Hezbollah representative, whose identity was not revealed, commented that the The pager explosion was the biggest security breach suffered by fighters since the start of the Gaza conflictin October last year. They have been acting in support of the Palestinian group Hamas.
So far, the Israeli authorities have not commented over allegations that the country was behind the attack.