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Israel decided to blow up the pager devices carried by militia group Hezbollah earlier than planned over fears the operation would be discovered, US officials said.
Twelve people including two children were killed and nearly 3,000 were wounded after the handheld devices simultaneously detonated across Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday afternoon,
“It was a use it or lose it moment,” one US official told Axios about the reasoning Israel gave the Washington for the timing of the attack.
Meanwhile, a Lebanese security source claimed Israel’s spy agency Mossad planted explosives in thousands of the devices months before they exploded.
The same source claimed the beepers - believed to have been made by a Hungarian company with a licence to use Taiwan-based Gold Apollo’s brand - were modified “at the production level”.
The Iran-backed militant group has vowed to retaliate against Israel, whose military declined to comment on the blasts.
Hezbollah, which controls southern Lebanon, forms part of Iran’s so-called “axis of resistance”, which opposes Western and Israeli influence in the region.
