• David Barnea says both operations reflect 'intelligence penetration and a deep understanding of the enemy'

JERUSALEM

Chief of Israel's Mossad intelligence service on Tuesday said his agents managed to deliver the first shipment of 500 pager devices in Lebanon, which later exploded and led to countless casualties, a few weeks before the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks.

The Hamas attack led to months-long cross-border warfare between Hezbollah and Israeli forces and later a full-scale invasion and bombardment by Israel. A ceasefire took effect in November.

In September, Israel orchestrated a series of explosions involving wireless communication devices, including pagers and walkie-talkies used by the Hezbollah group, killing at least 51 people and injuring nearly 3,000 others.

“The operation reflects intelligence penetration and a deep understanding of the enemy, technological superiority, and top-level operational capabilities.” David Barnea​​​​​​​ said at an event for the Israeli Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) in the city of Herzliya.

"Activating both operations [detonating the pagers and walkie talkies] at the start of the war would not have achieved the powerful battlefield impact we reached at the time of its execution,” he added.

"By the time the pagers operation was ultimately carried out, 10 times more pagers were detonated than were available at the beginning of the war, and twice as many walkie talkies were detonated," he claimed.

Barnea said the walkie-talkie operation was devised about a decade ago and the idea for the pagers operation first emerged after realization that walkie- talkies may not be effective in all combat scenarios.

On Sept. 17, 2024, thousands of pagers, mostly used by Hezbollah for communication, simultaneously exploded across Lebanon. A day later, thousands of Icom walkie-talkies used by the group also exploded at the same time.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar