On September 17, 2024, thousands of explosives-rigged pagers carried by Hezbollah members across Lebanon blew up, maiming thousands of the militant group's operatives, as well as civilians.
A year after the unprecedented operation, the Iran-backed group still has not discovered how Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency managed to insert explosives into its pagers, Lebanese security sources told The National.
The sources also revealed that the security breaches in Hezbollah's network extend beyond its failure to detect explosives hidden inside the pagers and walkie-talkies used by the organisation.
The co-ordinated detonations, widely regarded as one of the largest-scale covert operations in modern history, mark the decline of the once-dominant regional militant group.
At the same time, Israel reportedly hacked into Hezbollah's missile systems. The hack temporarily prevented the group from launching weapons and crippled its defensive capabilities for the duration of the ensuing war, according to the sources.
“The Lebanese state hasn't worked on it. It hasn't investigated at all. It's all Hezbollah. But Hezbollah hasn't figured out yet,” said a Lebanese senior security official involved in the file.
Another security source added that for months after the pager attack, Hezbollah was unable to fire missiles, apparently because Israel had broken its launch codes.
“The Iranians arrived later and brought some kind of upgrades and restored some of the failed systems,” he said.
Back-to-back blasts
Mahdi Al Manaa, 34, was in south Lebanon when his pager exploded. “The pagers were a security operation that was perfect in its success,” he conceded.
The blast left him severely injured, his face scarred, and his left hand disfigured. He said the pagers were a key tool in how fighters – and others who carried them – worked and were guided on where and when to go.
A day after the pager detonations, as funerals were under way, Israel also set off rigged walkie-talkies carried by the group's members. Israel later confirmed it carried out both attacks. The simultaneous explosions represented an escalation in what was, until then, a contained conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.
The back-to-back blasts killed at least 32 people and injured thousands.
“What we have been informed of through Hezbollah is that samples of those pagers had been scanned somehow before they were delivered, and they looked clean,” said the senior security official.
Hezbollah had adapted the pagers in an attempt to avoid electronic surveillance, but the very tools meant to shield them became a vulnerability.
Before Hezbollah could regroup, Israel followed with a sweeping and deadly offensive: killing Hezbollah's senior leadership, relentlessly pounding parts of Lebanon with air strikes, and finally, launching a ground invasion of the country's south.
“We already know that Hezbollah suspected the pagers were hacked when the batteries started lasting less and overheating,” the official said. The Mossad had brought the detonations forward, fearing Hezbollah's suspicions would expose the operation.
Hezbollah's investigation has so far cleared the group's operatives and affiliates of espionage, the source said.
“The middlemen weren't working for Israel's spy agencies, that's for sure. They were tricked. They wanted to get a good and fast deal, and Hezbollah paid the price.”
Two Hezbollah members injured in the operation spoke to The National, describing its toll.
Mr Al Manaa was on active deployment in south Lebanon when his pager exploded. He said that within the organisation, the contents of the investigation were known only to the leadership.
“The problem was in the security breach. We [Hezbollah] were exposed to a major security breach,” Mr Al Manaa said.
Continuous bombardment
Mr Al Manaa was severely wounded by the attacks, suffering injuries across his body. His left hand remains disfigured, and his face scarred. He says the pager attack split his face, with the strength of the explosion tearing his right eye from its socket.
“After the explosion, I was still conscious and I could still hear, but I couldn’t see because I was injured in my face. Within a few seconds, we realised that it was the pagers – which is something that I used every single day – that exploded.”
Mr Manaa continues to recover from his injuries a year on. He is now a locally elected official in the southern city of Tyre.
Shadi Al Ghoul, 29, a computer scientist who said he worked in the administrative side of Hezbollah’s organisation, was with his fiancé preparing their future home when his pager exploded.
“I felt the pager in my bag vibrate strangely. And its sound was very loud, not the normal sound. This got my attention, and I grabbed the pager,” said Mr Al Ghoul.
He saw an error message, and a message requesting him to push the up-down button, then OK. For the first few seconds, nothing happened.
“Before I had time to press again, the pager exploded on me,” he said.
Mr Al Ghoul, who has since married and obtained his master's degree in computer science, says his fiancé had walked away from him to talk to her mother just before the attack and was not injured.
“I came to understand that this was a big Israeli attack on us. I started asking what was happening, and they told me the pagers were exploding. I flashed back to my pager – the last thing I saw before the explosion.”
Mr Al Ghoul now uses his computer science skills to train others maimed by the pager attacks – those blinded or missing fingers – on how to use their phones and laptops despite their disability.
A year after the deadly detonations that marked Hezbollah's fall from the most powerful non-state actor in the region, members of the group are still targeted on a near-daily basis.
Despite a ceasefire declared in November of last year, Israel continues to bombard parts of Lebanon, in addition to maintaining an occupation of five military outposts inside Lebanese territory.
The goal, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is to prevent Hezbollah from rebuilding and to put pressure on the group to disarm nationwide.
But Mr Al Manaa and Mr Al Ghoul both said the pager attacks had only deepened their convictions.
“We'll rebuild,” Mr Al Manaa said. “You'll be surprised by how much we'll rebuild.”
