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Israel activated the plan to explode pagers carried by Hezbollah members in Lebanon and Syria on September 17 amid fears the sabotage plot was about to be uncovered by the group, three United States officials told Axios.
“It was a use it or lose it moment,” a U.S. official told the news outlet when explaining Israel’s reasoning for carrying out the sabotage attack on September 17.
A former Israeli official told Axios that Israel had planned to use the exploding pagers as an opening blow in an all-out war with Hezbollah, but had become concerned in recent days that the booby-trapped devices could be discovered.
The news outlet noted that Al Monitor reported that two members of Hezbollah had recently raised concerns about the pagers.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant updated the U.S. a few minutes prior to the attack that an attack was about to take place without providing any details, according to Axios. It’s worth noting that Washington denied having any advance knowledge of the attack.
At least nine people, including two children, were killed as a result of the attack in Lebanon, with more than 2,800 others wounded. Casualties were also reported in Syria.
Among those wounded in Lebanon was the Iranian ambassador to the country, Mojtaba Amani. Members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps told The New York Times that Amani’s injuries were serious and that he would be taken to Tehran for treatment.
As for how the sabotage attack was carried out, a senior Lebanese security source and another source told Reuters on September 18 that Israel’s Mossad spy agency planted explosives inside some 5,000 pages which were imported by Lebanese group Hezbollah a few months earlier.
Taiwanese company Gold Apollo revealed that the pager model allegedly used in the attack was made by its Hungarian partner.
Gold Apollo has a “long-term partnership” with Budapest-based BAC Consulting KFT to use its trademark, and the model mentioned in media reports “is produced and sold by BAC,” the company said in a statement, after The New York Times reported that Gold Apollo pagers were involved in the blasts.
The deadly sabotage attack will likely lead to more escalation between Israel and Hezbollah, who have been exchanging fire since the outbreak of the war in the Palestinian enclave of the Gaza Strip.
In a statement released on September 18, Hezbollah vowed to respond to the attack while affirming that it will separately continue to launch attacks in support of Gaza. Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah is expected to provide more details on the attack and how the group will respond to it in an upcoming speech.
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