How Hezbollah pagers remained undetected for months even with three grams of explosives

In a covert operation that reportedly took months to plan, Israel’s Mossad is believed to have planted explosives inside pagers used by Hezbollah, leading to a coordinated explosion that killed nine people and injured nearly 3,000 across Lebanon. According to a report from Reuters, the explosive-laden pagers were undetectable for months, even by the Lebanese militant group’s own security measures. Here’s how these devices remained hidden in plain sight.

Hezbollah, which has been using pagers as a low-tech way to evade Israeli electronic surveillance, ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based manufacturer Gold Apollo earlier this year. However, Reuters reported that Mossad allegedly infiltrated the supply chain at the production level. According to a senior Lebanese security source, Israel’s spy agency planted a small amount of explosives inside the devices during manufacturing, making them virtually impossible to detect. The report cited a security source claiming that "up to three grams of explosives were hidden in the new pagers."

These modified pagers, like standard models, could wirelessly receive text messages but were incapable of making phone calls. The source told Reuters that Mossad embedded a tiny circuit board inside each pager, containing up to three grams of explosive material. The detonators were reportedly linked to a receiver that could be triggered remotely by a coded message.

Why they went undetected

The genius behind this operation lay in how unremarkable the pagers seemed. Pagers are outdated, simple devices, and Hezbollah believed using them would help the group avoid Israeli tracking methods. Mossad’s strategy took advantage of this assumption by tampering with the devices at the manufacturing stage, embedding explosives so small that they went unnoticed by Hezbollah for months.

Reuters reported that the explosive components were integrated so seamlessly that even Hezbollah’s routine security checks couldn’t detect them. According to a senior Lebanese source familiar with the investigation, no scanning equipment used by the group would have been able to pick up on the hidden explosives.

Coordinated detonation

The explosives were reportedly activated when Israeli intelligence sent a signal to the pagers, causing 3,000 devices to explode simultaneously across Lebanon. The explosions left Hezbollah fighters and civilians severely injured. Images analysed by Reuters showed that the pagers carried stickers and formats consistent with Gold Apollo’s products, although the company claimed that a European manufacturer had made these specific devices under their brand.

This breach caught Hezbollah off guard, as the group had been using pagers in an attempt to avoid Israeli surveillance. The group is now grappling with what Reuters described as its “biggest security breach” in decades.

The fallout

Hezbollah has vowed retaliation against Israel, though the group’s leadership has not yet provided details on how it plans to respond. According to Reuters, the group is reeling from the attack, which left many of its fighters maimed or dead. This breach is especially alarming for Hezbollah at a time when tensions with Israel are at a boiling point, with the ongoing Gaza conflict escalating cross-border skirmishes between the two sides.