Israel was involved in the production of pagers that Hezbollah fighters detonated this week, such as the operation to "intercept the supply chain"; had been planned for at least 15 years, US intelligence sources confirmed to ABC News. The CIA has long been reluctant to use such tactics because of the high risk to innocent persons, reports News.bg.
Planning for the attack involved shell companies and Israeli intelligence officials and their assets operating undercover, posing as a legitimate pager manufacturing company. According to the sources, some of the participants were not informed about the real purpose of the operation.
The pagers were loaded with 1-2 ounces of explosives and a remote switch to trigger the blast. Remotely triggered explosions have killed at least 37 people and injured 2,931 in Lebanon over the past two days, according to Lebanese Health Minister Firas al-Abyad.
The conflict between "Hezbollah" and Israel escalated on Thursday after Israel carried out strikes on Lebanon, which "Hezbollah" fire back. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the group had old pagers, not the new ones used in the attack. He specified that "not all pagers were distributed, and some of them were turned off".
ABC News contacted BAC Consulting — the Hungarian company involved in the production of pagers on behalf of Gold Apollo in Taiwan. Neither company responded to inquiries. A Hungarian government spokesman said the pagers had "never been in Hungary" and the company was "a commercial intermediary with no manufacturing or operational facilities in the country".
Nasrallah commented that "the enemy knew that the pagers were 4,000", adding that "for two days the enemy wanted to kill at least 5,000 people.