Two former Israeli spies come out to explain how they used the exploding pager attack against Hezbollah, strategically making the terrorist group inadvertently help fund Mossad and lead to the deaths of their own members.
Described as the "most daring" and "sophisticated deception in the history of counterintelligence" by 60 Minutes host, Lesley Stahl, two Israeli agents explained the component of the pager plot, 'a modern-day Trojan Horse,' that helped them dismantle Hezbollah.
The agents, referred to as "Michael" and "Gabriel," concealed their identities and their voice were altered in the CBS segment.
While Hezbollah began striking Israel after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack that sparked the Israel-Hamas war, the agent known as Michael, said the exploding pager plot began a decade ago.
Michael said the scheme started when Mossad began selling walkie-talkies laden with hidden explosives to Hezbollah, who were unaware that they were buying devices from its enemy, Israel.
These same walkie-talkies were not detonated until September, a day after booby-trapped pagers were set off.
Michael likened the act to creating "a pretend world" similar to the psychological thriller film, The Truman Show, where the protagonist lives in a false reality where paid actors are used to maintain an illusion, the Associated Press reported.
"When they are buying from us, they have zero clue that they are buying from the Mossad," Gabriel said. "We make like [the] 'Truman Show,' everything is controlled by us behind the scenes. In their experience, everything is normal. Everything was 100% kosher including businessmen, marketing, engineers, showroom, everything."
The second aspect of the scheme, using the rigged pagers, was launched in 2022 after Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, discovered that Hezbollah was buying pagers from Taiwan-based company, Gold Apollo.
The pagers had to be made slightly larger so the explosives hidden inside could fit and include a specific ringtone that "sounded urgent enough to make someone pull the pager out of their pocket."
Gabriel said Mossad used shell companies to trick Gold Apollo into working with them.
By September, Hezbollah had 5,000 of the pagers.
Israel triggered the attack on September 17, when pagers all over Lebanon started beeping and exploding, even if the person, presumably a member of Hezbollah, did not push the buttons to read an incoming encrypted text. At least 2,800 people were injured by the pagers' blasts.
The next day, Mossad activated the walkie-talkies, which caused more deaths to Hezbollah commanders in Syria and Lebanon. Some went off during funerals for pager attack victims.
The attacks killed and injured numerous commanders within Hezbollah's ranks.
Senior official Hashem Safieddine was declared dead after Hezbollah lost contact with the purported potential new leader during an airstrike by Israel.
According to the Israeli spies in the 60 Minute segment, the goal is to spark fear in Hezbollah and its supporters such as Iran and Lebanon, not death.
Gabriel said the goal was more about sending a message than actually killing Hezbollah fighters.
"If [he's] just dead, so he's dead," Grabriel said. "But if he's wounded, you have to take him to the hospital, take care of him. You need to invest money and efforts," he said, which drains resources. "And those people without hands and eyes are living proof, walking in Lebanon, of 'don't mess with us.' They are walking proof of our superiority all around the Middle East."
Michael recounted how locals in Lebanon were afraid to turn on their air conditioners over fears of them exploding.
"There is real fear," he said. "We want them to feel vulnerable, which they are. We can't use the pagers again because we already did that. We've already moved on to the next thing. And they'll have to keep on trying to guess what the next thing is."
Taiwan investigators have questioned two individuals for their role in the pagers plot as part of a probe.
In September, representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticized the pager blasts targeting Hezbollah members, saying they were detonated by Israel "across a slew of public spaces, seriously injuring and killing innocent civilians."
