Sources: Hezbollah released pagers hours before the explosion

6 security sources said in LebanonOn Friday, the Hezbollah group gave its members new pagers branded “Gold Apollo”, hours before thousands of them were blown up in attacks this week, in a show of confidence about the safety of the machines, despite the ongoing investigations. For electronic equipment to detect threats.

One of the sources explained, “One of the group members got a new pager on Monday, and it exploded the next day, while it was still in the packing box,” and the second source said, “a pager that a senior member got. a few days ago one of his subordinates was injured when it exploded.”

In what appeared to be a coordinated attack, Gold Apollo-branded devices exploded on Tuesday across southern Lebanon, the southern suburbs of Beirut, and the Bekaa Valley.

On Wednesday, hundreds of other walkie-talkie devices exploded, while the explosion caused 37 deaths, including at least two children, and injured more than 3,000.

“We were deceived”

In the context of the investigations, one of the security sources and an intelligence source said that the reason for the explosion was that “the devices carried a higher explosive charge than the wireless communication devices,” indicate that batteries were wireless communication devices. were filled with a highly explosive compound known as PETN, while revealing that the group “We are still investigating the place, time and how the explosives were placed in the devices.”

One source said: “There are many electronic problems that we have discovered, but not the walkie-talkies that have fooled us, welcoming the enemy. “

He said, “It was very difficult to detect explosives with any device or scanner,” without specifying what kind of scanners the devices used by the group went through.

One security source said the inspections were part of a routine inspection of the agency’s equipment, including communications devices, to detect any signs that they had been contaminated with explosives or surveillance equipment.

Security sources indicated that the group blocked an Israeli operation last year that targeted equipment it imported from abroad, from its own landlines to air conditioning units in its offices.

On the other hand, the sources pointed out that “Hezbollah checked the pagers after they were delivered to Lebanon, starting in 2022, including traveling through airports with them, to ensure that they would not give alarms,” ​​without specifying the name of the airports where the tests were carried out.

Strengthen studies

Two security sources and an intelligence source said, “Hezbollah suspected that more devices could be hacked, after the pager devices exploded on Tuesday.”

The two sources said that the group, in return, carried out the scanning of their communication systems, and that they carefully examined all the devices. They also began checking supply chains, but had not finished checking until Wednesday afternoon, when the walkie-talkies went off.

One of the sources said that the party “believes that Israel chose to detonate the devices because they were afraid that Hezbollah would reveal that they were booby-trapped.”

A US intelligence official said that Israel had a hand in manufacturing the pager devices that exploded, noting that this operation had been in preparation for 15 years.

The source indicated that the planning of the attack included the establishment of fake companies, and several layers of Israeli intelligence officers and their agents, as a front for the company that created the pager devices.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said 25 people were killed and at least 650 others injured as a result of the explosion of the devices, which is a much higher number of deaths than the previous day’s explosions, which resulted in 12 dead and around 3,000 injured. .