A Surprise Breaks the Silence… Israel Decided to Detonate “Pagers” for This Reason

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A flood of questions and speculations continues to flow about the “pagers” that exploded in the hands of Hezbollah members in Lebanon, causing deaths and injuries.

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Yesterday, at least nine people were killed and nearly three thousand were injured, including the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, when wireless paging devices owned by Hezbollah exploded across Lebanon in an unprecedented attack. The Lebanese state and Hezbollah blamed Israel for the incident.

For its part, Israel has made no comment on what happened in Lebanon. Between accusation and silence, media reports revealed that Israel decided to detonate the “pagers” for fear that Hezbollah would discover the security breach.

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A senior American official about the timing of the operation: “Israel was at a stage where it either had to use the rigged pagers or lose them.”

Three American officials told the site: “Israel decided to detonate hundreds of paging devices carried by Hezbollah members in Lebanon and Syria due to concerns that Hezbollah might soon discover the security breach in these devices.”

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According to a former senior Israeli official, “Israeli intelligence agencies planned to use the rigged pagers they managed to plant with Hezbollah members as an opening surprise strike in a full-scale war to temporarily paralyze the organization and give Tel Aviv a significant advantage in the attack.”

Here the Concerns Begin

However, an American official told the same site that “in recent days, growing concerns emerged in Israel that Hezbollah might discover that the pagers were a security breach. As a result, emergency consultations were held between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, key ministers, defense leaders, and the intelligence community, leading to the decision to use the secret system now, rather than risk Hezbollah discovering it.”

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It was revealed that “Israeli concerns that led to the decision to carry out the attack were first reported on the Al-Monitor site.” According to the report, “two Hezbollah operatives raised suspicions about the pagers in recent days.”

It was noted that “when President Joe Biden‘s senior adviser, Amos Hochstein, visited Israel on Monday, Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and other senior officials were engaged in security consultations on the matter.”

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“When they met Hochstein, they gave him no clue as to what was happening behind the scenes.”

“On Tuesday afternoon, Israeli time, just minutes before the pagers began detonating across Lebanon, Gallant called U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.”

A senior American official stated that “Gallant informed his American counterpart that Israel would soon carry out an operation in Lebanon but refrained from giving specific details about the target or nature of the operation.”

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The American official said, “Israel did not notify the United States in advance of the details of the attack,” but noted that “Gallant’s phone call was an attempt to avoid completely surprising the United States.”

According to the Israeli site, “senior officials in the Biden administration feel they were not sufficiently notified.”

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At a press conference on Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller responded: “We were not aware of this operation and were not involved in it.”

The Expected Response from Hezbollah

Israeli and American officials estimated for the site that Hezbollah‘s response could go in either direction.

The first possibility is that “Hezbollah launches a major attack on Israel in retaliation for the humiliation it suffered.”

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Alternatively, the party may hold back, at least in the short term, thinking there may be more unknown security breaches that Israel could exploit.