The battle over control of the Levant, and more specifically, the country of Israel, has been going on for the entirety of recorded history. For the short version, I blogged about it last year – HERE. For the long version, check out my book HERE, which is directly related. I took pains to give the back story. Hence, I will not delve into the history of why the war is going on, except to say that since the foundation of Hezb’Allah in 1982, during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the Iran backed Shia terrorist group and the Israeli military and intelligence services have been in a state of waxing and waning war. At some points, that war involved the United States directly, and it has involved the US indirectly for its entirety. Most recently the competing Sunni Terrorist organization’s attacks out of Gaza on October 7, 2023, saw Hezb’Allah join in via rocket attacks the next day. They have launched over 100 salvos in the intervening year, as well as drone strikes and more conventional terrorist attacks. That said – what is arguably the most spectacular and successful covert military and intelligence counter-terrorism operation in history came to fruition on September 17, 2024.

A Bit of Background

Since the advent of electronic communications, Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) has been of interest. Indeed, the American Civil War saw some of the first intercepts and disruptions of telegraph signals. World War I and II saw the rise of radio communications, and the measures and countermeasures see-sawed back and forth in attempts to intercept, decipher, and disrupt communications. The Cold War was rife with electronic warfare, and SIGINT played such a huge and secretive role that it wasn’t until well after the supposed end of that conflict that the public gained some small knowledge of what went on. (Fun History Note: go to the CIA’s website on VENONA – or read up on it. It turns out Senator McCarthy was right!) By the start of the Global War On Terrorism (arguably the most poorly named war in the history of the United States), the US and its allies had a vast array of tools to track, intercept, decode, and disrupt signals of all sorts. Indeed, Anti-Radiation Missiles, first widely used in Vietnam, were a sort of harbinger of using enemy radio signals to find and kill them (the missiles home in on RADAR units and blow them up). Additionally, as the internet and wireless communications improved, so did the tools. From tracking cellular phones of terrorists in remote desert locations to triangulating on an unlicensed television set to collect taxes in the United Kingdom, and the passive gathering of your habits, conversations, and everything else by your phone and smart speakers, big brother is in one form or another – always watching.

PREFACE – Much of the following is based on open source reporting, supposition based on that reporting by experts, and official statements. However, due to the nature of the operation, the secrecy inherent to such operations, and the ongoing fluidity of the situation, I cannot guarantee 100% accuracy. However, I will make every effort to identify where things are unconfirmed. I Will also update this blog as more information becomes available.

What Led Up To It?

Just as Al Qaeda, ISIS, and HAMAS have learned the hard way that while convenient, wireless two-way communications are trackable, and for a terrorist – are likely to get a JDAM dropped on your head by an F35. Therefore, since the start of the most recent flareup of the fight for the Holy Land, and seeing quite a few of its leadership atomized by surprise high explosives from the heavens, Hezb’Allah decided to move away from two-way devices for operational use. In particular, smartphones, satellite phones, and the like were seen as targets for the Israeli Air Force. Last year, they decided to go to an older technology that worked off a different network but still allowed for detailed instructions and messages to be passed -pagers.

But How?

Hence, last year, Hezb’Allah contacted what is advertised as a licensed producer of Taiwanese-designed “Gold Apollo” pagers: BAC Consulting in Hungary. While the details of how and why the pagers and supplier were decided on are still unknown, eventually, around 5000 Gold Apollo AR-924 Rugged Pagers were requisitioned. Either with this order, or via other channels, an unknown number of ICOM IC-V(U)82 radios were also procured (Note: This radio is no longer produced by the Japanese company, nor do they produce replacement batteries for them. However, there are a number of good counterfeit copies available from China).

Somewhere in that supply chain, the Israeli intelligence services, likely a combination of Mossad and the IDF’s SIGINT Unit 8200, compromised the supply and cooked up a surprise for Hezb’Allah. One possible explanation is that the pagers were allegedly held by Customs Officials in an undisclosed country during transit for about three months, and that is when they were tampered with.

(Note: There are multiple reports that this operation had its start 12-15 years ago, which is plausible. However, due to the truncated timeline between the known decision to move to pagers within the last year, and the recent employment of the devices, it is surmised that at least the pager portion of the operation was conceived and executed rapidly.)

From forensic examination by Lebanese authorities, the operatives opened the pagers and installed between 1 to 2 ounces of pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) explosive, possibly some shrapnel-enhancing ball bearings, and possibly detonators in the pagers. They were supposedly then taken through multiple unnamed airports to see if they would pass through security, which they did. They were then resealed, repacked, and completed their journey. An alternate theory suggests that a detonator was unnecessary, and an overload of the battery caused by a hacked signal/code sent to the pager could have caused enough heat to detonate the PETN. Without definitive forensic reports, the actual mode of detonation is speculative.

The pagers arrived in Lebanon and were delivered to Hezb’Allah around February 2024. They were subsequently issued to nearly all levels of the organization, including leadership and associates. In fact, it is known that some were issued to operatives mere hours before they were activated. It is unknown when the ICOM radios were issued, although some reports of orders for some types of devices as early as 2022, which may include pagers, ICOM radios, or other devices (to be addressed below).

While the IDF and President Netanyahu have been very tight-lipped about the entirety of the operation, there is some question about the timing. Strategically, it seems to have been ill-timed, as it was not followed up with a long-expected Israeli invasion of Southern Lebanon. According to some reports, two Hezb’Allah operatives who were being surveilled were seen to have become suspicious of the pagers they had. One operative was killed, and the other escaped. Subsequently, considering that the entire operation was about to be compromised, the decision was made to blow them all up immediately (or at least those that had been activated and were in use).

Operation Beeper Blast

On September 17, 2024, at about 1530 (1230 GMT), 3000 of the pagers, mostly in the person of Hezb’Allah operatives located primarily in Beirut, but also all over Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, beeped several times and then displayed a message that imitated one from the Hezb’Allah leadership. A moment passed, and the signal detonated the mini bomb. The pause and displayed message were thought to be designed to allow enough time for the operative to grab the pager, and hold it up to his face to read the message. Devious.

The results were horrific. Early reports were bad, but as the day passed, hospitals were swamped with between 3000-5000 wounded, with calls for blood donations quickly going out as supplies ran out. Officially, Hezb’Allah has announced that 35 operatives and two children were killed, around 400 were critically injured, and around 500 with severe damage to or loss of eyesight. Many were subsequently flown to Iran for advanced treatment. Perhaps one of the most telling confirmed injury was the blinding of the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani. Also killed was the adult son of Hezb’Allah Member of Parliament, Ali Ammar.

However, documents reported to have been intercepted from Hezb’Allah reveal a more staggering story. It lists 879 killed, 602 critically wounded, 509 with loss of eyesight, 2187 with required amputations, 1735 with genital loss or mutilation, and 1693 other injuries.

There were some limited follow-on strikes, and readiness levels were raised by the IDF, as well as very limited retaliatory launches by Hezb’Allah toward Israel. But a major conflict did not immediately follow. There are ongoing threats of retaliation by both Hezbollah and Iran, with Israel advising that the pagers and radios were not the end of their ability to attack in surprising ways stating: “We have many capabilities that we have not yet activated.”

Operation ICOM Blast

The next day – another round of explosions were heard around the country again. This time the ICOM radios with quite a bit more explosives started to detonate. This was accompanied by reports of numerous other electronics also detonating – although aside from a single image of a biometric door lock to confirm an explosion (which could have simply been an ICOM radio in the hand of the victim with the timing of the blast coinciding with his manipulation of the lock), much of that reporting is claimed to be “panic” and rumor by Lebanese authorities. An additional 20 were killed and 450 wounded, with fires resulting across the country. One radio exploded during a funeral for a Hezb’Allah operative who was killed the day before. A notable casualty was Muhammad Kanzo, the Chief of Staff of the Lebanese member of parliament Hani Kabisi. Kabisi in turn serves as the Chief of Staff of Nabih Berri, Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, and Chairman of the Shia Amal Movement.

Nonetheless, and not without understanding, most of Hezb’Allah, other terrorist groups, and regular citizens of Lebanon are terrified of their electronic devices. By September 18th, it was announced that the Lebanese Army and Hezb’Allah Security Forces would conduct controlled detonations of thousands of wireless devices that were believed to have been compromised by Israel, including pagers, radios, cell phones, smart devices, watches, remotes, and headsets. In the end, it has to have shaken the entirety of Hezb’Allah, their friends and supporters, and anyone else who might have earned the ire of the Jewish State. It certainly has made me cognizant of how many wireless devices of which I am within the theoretical blast radius…

In honor of this brilliant operation, I have to shamelessly plug these stickers, which will look great on your wireless laptop! Click the picture to go to the merch store!