Two recently retired senior Israeli intelligence agents shared new details about a deadly clandestine operation years in the making that targeted Hezbollah terrorist operatives in Lebanon and Syria using exploding pagers and walkie talkies. The former Mossad agents appeared overnight between Sunday and Monday on the CBS investigative news magazine "60 Minutes" to provide behind-the-scenes information about Operation Pager, that ended three months ago by causing injuries to thousands of Hezbollah operatives.
Journalist Lesley Stahl held one of the alleged pagers prepared by the Mossad during the interview. The agents, who according to the network were among those who led the operation, spoke to her masked, their voices distorted, and described how they carried out the operation that began a decade ago - first by selling thousands of walkie-talkies to the organization and then pagers, all of which were planted with explosives.
Former Mossad agents talk about the pager operation on '60 Minutes'
(Video: CBS News)
The Mossad began the operation based on walkie-talkies, with the idea that Hezbollah operatives would carry them in their vests - close to their chest and heart. One of the agents, using the pseudonym "Michael," said that Hezbollah had purchased 16,000 devices manufactured by the Mossad "at a good price."
“We created a pretend world,” said the officer. "We are a global production company. We write the screenplay, we're the directors, we're the producers, we're the main actors, and the world is our stage.
He noted that the price “couldn't be too low or they'd be suspicious." The Mossad also had to conceal its involvement in the sale and ensure that the radios could not be linked to Israel, so shell companies were set up to infiltrate the supply chain.
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Journalist Lesley Stahl interviews a retired Mossad agent on '60 Minutes'
(Photo: CBS)
As the use of these types of radios became less common, the agents said, the operation to distribute another, more advanced device began. The intelligence organization discovered that Hezbollah was buying pagers from a Taiwanese company called Gold Apollo, which was unaware of the explosives being inserted into the devices.
The second agent, who went by the pseudonym "Gabriel," told of the day he presented the pager to Mossad head Dedi Barnea - one that had been enlarged to accommodate explosives.
"He was furious, he was telling us, 'There is no chance that anyone will buy such a big device. It's not comfortable in their pocket. It's heavy,'" he said.
Barnea sent "Gabriel" to redesign it, but eventually the second agent convinced the Mossad head that it would work and the device would be purchased as is.
The Mossad hired the marketing manager of Gold Apollo to offer Hezbollah an upgrade to the existing devices.
"When they are buying from us, they have zero clue that they are buying from the Mossad. We make like 'Truman Show,' everything is controlled by us behind the scene. In their experience, everything is normal. Everything was 100% kosher including businessman, marketing, engineers, showroom, everything," according to Gabriel.
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'We created a pretend world', retired Mossad agent tells Lesley Stahl
(Photo: Courtesy of CBS)
By September 2024, Hezbollah had already purchased about 5,000 pagers.
"We have an incredible array of possibilities of creating foreign companies that have no way being traced back to Israel. Shell companies over shell companies to affect the supply chain to our favor," said agent Michael.
The devices were advertised as high-end products, with upgrades, new features, and water resistance. For marketing purposes, fake YouTube advertisements were created, showing the device in a glass of water, covered in soil, and they were touted as having a very long battery life.
"It become the best product in the beeper area in the world," said Gabriel.
Stahl asked if they had been approached by other customers, not just from Hezbollah. Gabriel said that the shell company received several requests from potential customers. "Obviously we didn't send to anyone. We just quote them with expensive price," he said.
The Mossad conducted experiments on dummies wearing padded gloves, in order to plan the amount of explosives that would only harm the person carrying the pager and not those around them, according to Gabriel, who emphasized that the plan was meant to harm only Hezbollah members and not anyone near them.
The devices had no intelligence capabilities and could not be used for surveillance, only as small bombs.
This is a very stupid device by nature. This is the reason they're using it. There's almost no way how to tap it. It's only receiving messages and-- several grams of explosive," Gabriel explained.
The agents said the Mossad looked at several options for the pager’s ringtones. They wanted to find a sound that would compel the owner of the device to take it out of his pocket. The intelligence agency also looked at how long it took a person to answer a pager, finding it to be an average of seven seconds.
The person who gave the order to carry out the operation on September 17 was the head of the Mossad, Barnea, after learning that Hezbollah might be suspicious of the devices. In total, the explosion of the pagers and radios killed about 30 people, including two children, and injured about 3,000.
Two days after the pager attack, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed on September 27, gave a speech that 60 minutes described as "subdued," in contrast to his other speeches.
"If you look at his eyes, he was defeated. He already lose the war. And his soldier look at him during that speech. And they saw a broken leader. And this was the tipping point of the war," agent Gabriel said.
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'60 Minutes' journalist Lesley Stahl holds one of the decoy pagers
(Photo: Courtesy of CBS)
The retired Mossad agent also said that some of the people who were close to Nasrallah in the bunker were carrying the beepers on the day of the attack. According to him, "With his in own eyes, he saw them collapsing." The interviewer asked in response: "How do you know?" Gabriel replied: "It's a strong rumor."
The agents were asked if the Mossad plan had achieved its goal.
"The aim, it wasn't killing Hezbollah terrorists," Gabriel explains. "If he just dead, so he's dead. But if he's wounded, you have to take him to the hospital, take care of him. You need to invest money and efforts. 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."
The day after the pagers exploded, people were afraid to turn on the air conditioners in Lebanon because they were afraid that they would explode. So there was-- there is real fear," agent Michael noted. 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."
"Michael" said that, following the operation, "the wind was taken out of Hezbollah's fight," and expressed hope that the situation in Lebanon will influence Hamas and the release of the hostages in Gaza. "They're looking at their sides and they're seeing no one next to them. They are completely isolated now."
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The interview was produced by the program's Israeli editor, Shahar Bar On.
Israel has not yet officially accepted responsibility for the operation, although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed it during the first cabinet meeting after the dismissal of Minister Yoav Galant. In the program's promo, it was noted that it was one of the "largest operations in contemporary history," in which "an intelligence organization achieves the feat of an entire army."
The pager operation was launched on September 17, amid fears that it would soon be discovered. On the first day of the operation, the pagers of Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon and Syria exploded - and the next day, on September 18, their walkie-talkies also exploded.