Opinion: Planning Behind Israel's Pager Attack (Part 2)

 

The Agreement with Gold Apollo: Branding for Infiltration

So, to deal with these they go to Taiwan as Budapest's businessman and there they fix a meeting at Gold Apollo's office. Multiple discussions take place there & they make Gold Apollo ready for an agreement which stated that - Gold Apollo will allows BAC consulting to use their name and branding BAC consulting will make its own pager device - AR - 924 and do everything itself but the sticker of Gold Apollo Co. Ltd. Would be put on the model that is, it'll sell it forward after branding. But Gold Apollo didn't have any idea that its Israel's shell company and the entire agreement between BAC consulting & Gold Apollo it was fixed for this entire deal that, BAC consulting will even give share from its profit and some money would be given as signing bonus also. Overall deal was good, so Gold Apollo couldn't decline. And it signs the agreement. Gold Apollo didn't know what was happening with them. They thought that only the name is being used and the company was founded to be registered in 2022, it’s been a long time so they sign the agreement. But they didn't have any idea that due to this, what was going to happen in future. Now as soon as, Gold Apollo & BAC consulting signs the agreement the pagers of BAC consulting were not the pagers of Gold Apollo and this was what Israel wanted. And whatever I'm telling has been stated by Gold Apollo in official statement that we only gave branding in this agreement. Rest, we aren't linked to it. All the manufacturing was done by BAC consulting. This is its copy, you can pause and read it. After this, BAC consulting started making pagers & supplying to its multiple genuine clients. But actually, they were spying & waiting for their main client Hezbollah that anyhow they should sell their own pagers, on which Gold Apollo's logo was put on to Hezbollah. Now, Hezbollah had bought Apollo's pagers earlier but to sell Gold Apollo pagers made by Budapest's BAC consulting to Hezbollah was a very tough task. So, from here Israel has many spy agents who were mixed in Lebanon and among members of Hezbollah.

Israel's Covert Operation to Equip Hezbollah with Explosive Pagers

They were given this task to anyhow, bring the ones who would deal for pager in Hezbollah, as client to Budapest and Hezbollah doesn't order from open market. It has to use many channels and order pagers secretly. So which agents did Israel use, which tricks were applied which companies were used in between, how Hezbollah was convinced and made ready to order pagers from BAC consulting only nobody knows this. Its investigation is still going but anyhow, Israel gained success in it and made Hezbollah their client, as how it wanted. And as per Sky news, Hezbollah ordered 5000 pagers from BAC consulting. In the first lot 3000 pagers were to be sent & rest of the 2000 in the second lot. In this process, its being said that - the 2 other shell companies that Israel had opened separately whose name hasn't been disclosed until now they had major role in placing this order. When this BAC consulting was planning to give pagers to Hezbollah at the same time, one more thing had happened. BAC consulting had to make payment according to the agreement to Taiwan's Gold Apollo, with which it had signed the agreement. So when BAC consulting started making payment to Gold Apollo Taiwan's government sensed some unusual activity due to which it got alerted. Taiwan's economy ministry observed that Gold Apollo's payment often routed from Middle East as well. And due to this, Taiwan's local banks even set BAC consulting's payment on hold as well. And even the investigation had started regarding this but before the results could have been declared Israel had done its work. And the issue regarding payment was even confirmed by the founder of Gold Apollo - Hsu Ching - that payment was coming through an unusual way through Middle East and along with it, another thing came to light that the entire game which was going on the money that was required for it, around 1. 6 million euros was sent by Israel first to Bulgaria & then to Hungary.

The Deadly Modification: Explosives Hidden Within Pager Batteries

So, all the orders that Hezbollah placed through BAC consulting - a former British army bomb disposal officer had a theory in this - Sean Moorhouse that the normal pagers consist of these 2 batteries that give powers to the pagers. The speaker is attached here which releases the incoming beeps, alerts. The vibrator is being put here in case, if it’s in silent mode then the notification should be sent. This is the radio antenna, which receives signal. And the micro-processor that converts the signal and makes the message readable. The 2 batteries in the pager - he said that it might've happened that among the two identical batteries one was replaced and filled with explosive. So, the other battery was giving power to the device and the other battery was filled with explosive. And attached it with a chip, normally alkaline A battery weighs 23 grams but the weight of one of the batteries found in these pagers, weighed around 20 grams so, regarding this is being said that maybe in these batteries explosives were kept. And specific explosives used PETN This can do a very big blast in a very small amount. That's why this particular explosive is always used by agencies in cohort operations in year 1996, similarly explosive was used in a mobile device - there was an operative of Hamas, named Yahya who was killed by Mossad. Similarly, once they planted a bomb in a dog & sent it to Hezbollah's camp. Then comes the month of February 2024 & Israeli pagers started entering Lebanon day by day All the operatives of Hezbollah who were using this pager, didn't have any idea that they were roaming with a live bomb that is entirely in the control of Israel. They can explode whenever they want.

Preemptive Action Foiled and Israel's Impending Retaliation

Around 3000 pagers had reached Lebanon, rest of the 2000 were left to reach & then comes the date of 15th September, 2024 when the pager attack had to be done. Just 2 days before this attack Hezbollah had planted M18A1 Claymore mine in Israel's Yarkon park of Tel Aviv and through remote activation system, they were going to explode the bomb here. But somehow Israel's internal intelligence unit - the one that I told in the beginning which was named as Shin Bet which they also called as Shabba. So, Shin Bet gets the intel and they stop this explosion now, the attack had stopped but Israel was very angry that they had to do something about Hezbollah 2 days after this incident i. e. 17th September, 2024 the day when this pager attack was to be done - in the morning, few hours before the pager attack Security cabinet of Israel conducts a long meeting regarding Hezbollah & we don't know about rest of the discussion but after this meeting, Israel announced that the time has arrived - that northern Israeli who left their homes now is the time to bring them back. After this meeting, Netanyahu even told media that - now in the case of Hezbollah near Israel's northern border, some fundamental security changes need to be done. Only then the Israeli can come back to their homes. Everyone felt that, this meeting was a normal meeting but it’s being said that this meeting was related to this pager attack. In fact, CNN reported a published in which they clearly said that Israel had already told US about the pager attack that it was going to do on Lebanon.

US Awareness and Shin Bet's Further Intelligence

It took US in confidence, only then it conducted the pager attack. But regarding this, a lot of chaos was caused. The secretary of state of US Antony Blinken said that - it’s nothing like that. We don't know anything about it. After this meeting concluded, one more thing happens. The internal intelligence unit - Shin Bet said one more thing that Hezbollah fixed an explosive in a device & attempted to kill the former Israeli officer that we stopped. So all these things were happening back-to-back few hours before pager attack now after this, on the same day i. e. on 17th September, 2024 the time was 3:30 PM & all the members of Hezbollah in Lebanon get a message on pager. Whenever the main leadership of Hezbollah used to message regrading a task so, firstly something would be written in Arabic that appeared in a set pattern then this message appeared like that message. And everybody felt as if their leader had sent his message. and even if someone was away from their pager, then they had come near to it. The pagers which were silent at that time, started to vibrate. And as soon as this message is received pagers vibrate and start ringing. And after some time, back-to-back these pagers start self-exploding. Thousands of pagers shops, market, houses, bus stand - they exploded in thousands in Lebanon. The common citizens who were around the members of Hezbollah got injured as well. And people were angered mostly regarding Fatima's incident because 9-year-old Fatima was at home & when that pager started ringing, then she went to give to her father and it exploded on her & she loses her life.

Widespread Panic and Unexplained Explosions Following the Pager Attack

So, people were angry a lot regarding this. The hospitals in Lebanon started getting filled up doctor's leave were cancelled. In Lebanon, people started taking out batteries of TV, laptop, phones - everything and started throwing it. In fact, chaos started in the airport as well that the bomb shouldn't explode in the airplane as well. In the airports as well, people took out batteries from their phones & pagers and threw them. Thousands of people got injured & more than 40 people lost their lives. Now, on the next day i. e. 18th September 2024 - 4 people who died, people were caring their de*d bodies then there were walkie-talkies around, then it was known that walkie-talkies also started exploding. After some time, in Beirut the solar panels on top of the houses started exploding. People got even more scared from here, that what would explode next. TV, tablet, Fridge - people started getting scared with everything that when, what would explode nobody knows. But it was more shocking when Mojtaba Amani, Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon was injured from his pager. Then regarding this, it was being said that what is Hezbollah's pager doing with Iranian ambassador? When these walkie-talkies started exploding then it was being figured out, why it was happening - so it was found out that these are of model IC-F24 of ICOM company that're made by Japanese companies.

Theories Behind the Remote Triggering and Lack of Official Accountability

So, regarding this the statement from Japanese companies was released that, this walkie-talkie model’s production has been stopped in 2014 itself. So, how are they exploding, they don't have any idea as well. Now, as soon as this incident occurs - different theories emerged regarding this but the shocking thing was that how was Radio based technology triggered from afar. The theory that is most talked about is - an encrypted message was sent from far to these devices with which Memory became full & the chip had a programming from earlier itself that it started heating. So, due to heating of battery - explosives started getting exploded this theory was stated. But to figure out what actually happened is very difficult because none of the company or country would accept that it gave Hezbollah pagers, knowingly or by mistake or in any case. Because multiple countries have already declared Hezbollah has a terrorist organization. So, the country and the company - who would accept this would face a huge problem. In fact, Hezbollah wouldn't disclose this itself, where it ordered pagers from, which secret channel was used to order these devices. And if we talk about Israel then, about this pager attack Israel had rejected to say anything officially. It gave only one indication - the defense minister of Israel Yoav Gallant - he said that a new period pf war is starting & we're adapting that. But all the things that're going on cleared one thing that in the coming time, a proper war would take place between Hezbollah & Israel. Israel has given the indication that it can conduct ground invasion in Lebanon to bring back Israeli in northern region to their home.

For Part 1 Click Here