Lebanon terror attacks 'long in the making' Israeli op: Report
Israeli intelligence agents were behind several shell companies created to manufacture explosive-laden devices shipped to Lebanon
The dual terror attacks that rocked Lebanon this week, killing dozens and injuring thousands, were the result of a “complex and long in the making” Israeli operation, according to 12 current and former defense and intelligence officials who spoke with the New York Times (NYT).
“Even before [Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan] Nasrallah decided to expand pager usage, Israel had put into motion a plan to establish a shell company that would pose as an international pager producer,” the NYT report states, referring to Hungary-based BAC Consulting.
The shell company served as a front to manufacture thousands of pagers on behalf of Taiwanese company Gold Apollo that were acquired by the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah earlier this year. “At least two other shell companies were created to mask the real identities of the people creating the pagers: Israeli intelligence officers,” the report states.
“BAC did take on ordinary clients, for which it produced a range of ordinary pagers. But the only client that really mattered was Hezbollah, and its pagers were far from ordinary. Produced separately, they contained batteries laced with the explosive PETN,” three intelligence officers who spoke with the NYT are quoted as saying.
On Thursday, Budapest announced that the explosive-laden pagers were “never” in the country.
“Hungarian authorities have established that the company in question is a trading-intermediary company, which has no manufacturing or other site of operation in Hungary. It has one head of operations in Hungary on its listed address and the devices referenced have never been to Hungary,” government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said via social media.
The shipments from BAC started making their way to Lebanon in the summer of 2022 “in small numbers,” but production ramped up earlier this year after Nasrallah denounced the use of smartphones among its ranks.
“Over the summer, shipments of the pagers to Lebanon increased, with thousands arriving in the country and being distributed among Hezbollah officers and their allies,” two US intelligence officials told the western news outlet.
Referred to as “buttons” by Israeli intelligence, the pagers were activated on Tuesday afternoon, sending “a message to them in Arabic that appeared as though it had come from Hezbollah’s senior leadership.”
Twenty-four hours later, Lebanon was rocked by a similar attack as hundreds of ICOM V82 “Walkie-Talkie” devices blew up across the country.
On Thursday, the Japanese manufacturer of the devices revealed that it discontinued production of the IC-V82 handheld radio in October 2014.
“[The device in question] was discontinued about 10 years ago, and since then, it has not been shipped from our company. The production of the batteries needed to operate the main unit has also been discontinued, and a hologram seal to distinguish counterfeit products was not attached, so it is not possible to confirm whether the product shipped from our company,” the company said.