On Tuesday, a series of pager blasts occurred in parts of Lebanon and Syria. For nearly an hour, pagers exploded in pockets and hands, spreading chaos and panic. Hezbollah, the extremist group based in Lebanon, blamed Israel for the attacks. Reports now claim that Israel's intelligence agency, Mossad, had fitted the pagers with explosives five months ago, raising questions about the role of the Taiwanese company.
According to the New York Times, Mossad executed a covert operation embedding explosives into these pagers ordered by Hezbollah from Taiwan's Gold Apollo company. About 3000 pagers were tampered with before being shipped from Taiwan to Lebanon between April and May this year, suggesting that the plot was orchestrated months in advance.
Source: aajtak
U.S. officials indicated these pagers were models AP924 from the Taiwanese company. Each pager had one to two ounces of explosives placed beside the batteries. Reports revealed that a message sent to these pagers at around 3:30 PM in Lebanon activated the explosives.
It is claimed the pagers emitted a beeping sound for several seconds before the explosions. Sources indicated that Mossad had injected a small board containing explosives inside the pagers, making it nearly impossible for scanners or devices to detect.
Mossad Used PETN Explosive in Pagers
According to Sky News Arabia, Mossad fitted the pagers with PETN, an explosive component affixed to the pager batteries. The explosions were triggered by increasing the battery's temperature, with each explosive weighing less than 20 grams.
Mossad's History of Similar Attacks
Israel has previously carried out similar operations. Former U.S. National Security Intelligence Analyst David Kennedy noted that in 1996, Israel planted 15 grams of RDX explosive in the phone of Hamas leader Yahya Ayyash, which detonated when he made a call to his father.
