In the afternoon of 17 September 2024, Israel conducted a mass attack against Hezbollah cadres, at the same time disrupting the internal communication system of this military and political asset of Iran.
The communication system in question relied on pagers in order to avoid security risks associated with more advanced gadgets such as modern mobile phones. Ironically, this Hezbollah policy and its specific execution proved the worst security liability of all, since Hezbollah acquired thousands of its pagers from the same source.
Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency infiltrated this acquisition at some point, placing up to 20 grams of explosives into thousands of pagers distributed to Hezbollah members.
On 17 September, all the compromised pagers that were turned on exploded simultaneously, eliminating at least eight, and injuring between 2,800 and 3,000 of Hezbollah operatives, at least 200 of them critically.
While devastating, the effect of this Israeli operation on the Hezbollah capabilities is going to be temporary, unless followed shortly by a ground military offensive. It has been suggested that that in fact had been the initial Israeli plan, but the pagers were detonated early because Israelis suspected that Hezbollah had found out about the pager operation, and therefore the only chance to employ the pagers for an attack on Hezbollah members would be to do so immediately.
Efforts Category: Iran vs Israel Military Force (Northern Front)
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