December 3, 2024: The September 17th mass exploding pager attack against Hezbollah did enormous damage to the Iran-backed anti-Israel group. The pager attack, and the next day exploding walkie-talkie attack, were planned several years in advance. Israeli secret intelligence agency Mossad came up with the idea, and apparently several more that have not been implemented yet. Within Mossad there were disagreements of detonating the pagers and walkie-talkies because both were also being used to collect information on where Hezbollah members were and what they were up to. The pagers could be tracked and their messages retried by Mossad. Same deal with the walkie-talkies.

Some Mossad members pointed out that these were valuable sources of information about what Hezbollah was up to. By detonating these devices Mossad killed about 40 Hezbollah members and put nearly 3,000 in the hospital, some with missing hands, fingers or other waist-level body parts. After the attack a paranoid and terrified Hezbollah went back to using couriers to communicate. If an Iranian embassy or consulate was nearby, their encrypted messaging capabilities could be used. These facilities were limited in number and were no replacement for the missing pagers and walkie-talkies.

Hezbollah was encouraged to buy 5,000 Gold Apollo AR924 pagers because they were compact, weighing 133 g and had a long lasting lithium ion battery. Recharging took 150 minutes and power lasted nearly three months. The four line LCD display showed brief text messages on the 73mm x 50mm x 27mm device. You could hold the pager in the palm of your hand to read messages. That is why so many users lost hands or were blinded when the pagers exploded.

After the attack it took investigations by numerous European, American and Middle Eastern publications to discover where the pagers came from, who actually manufactured them and how they were equipped with explosives.

Meanwhile Israel was enjoying the benefits of sabotaged walkie-talkies that enabled Mossad to monitor Hezbollah communications with these devices. Hezbollah first adopted these walkie-talkies in 2015 and kept using them until September 18th when Mossad set off the explosives in the communications devices, injuring and killing. Many Mossad members disagreed with detonating the walkie talkies because listening in on Hezbollah communications was a valuable source of intelligence. Mossad believed that the exploding pagers would alert Hezbollah to the possibility of exploding walkie-talkies, so Mossad blew up those too.

Mossad developed the secretly modified pagers and walkie-talkies as one of several ways to monitor Hezbollah communications. Israel would not reveal how it was still monitoring these communications. Mossad had found ways to do it and was not talking about it.

The pager attack took place when all the pagers beeped to indicate an incoming message. Users had to use both hands to respond to the “you have received an encrypted message” signal. Some of the exploding pagers were in the pockets of users or even left at home or a workplace. Most of the pagers were on Hezbollah members and did the intended damage to Hezbollah members. To completely freak out Hezbollah members, the walkie-talkies exploded the next day. At that point Hezbollah members were ordered to use primitive manual methods to communicate. This further disrupted Hezbollah communications and made the groups less capable of acting during this crisis.

The pagers began beeping just after 3:30 in the afternoon in Lebanon on Tuesday, alerting Hezbollah operatives to a message from their leadership in a chorus of chimes, melodies, and buzzes.

But it wasn’t the militants’ leaders. The pages had been sent by Hezbollah’s archenemy, and within seconds the alerts were followed by the sounds of explosions and cries of pain and panic in streets, shops and homes across Lebanon.

This attack was a major coup for Mossad, devastating Hezbollah and making it possible to kill senior Hezbollah leaders like Hassan Nasrallah, who had long led Hezbollah and was irreplaceable. Hezbollah was not completely eliminated but the surviving members were leaderless and terrified of communication with each other except via courier.

This crippling blow to Hezbollah began with a bang and ended with a whimper as senior Hezbollah leaders died along with their thousands of injured members.