The Washington Post revealed details of the Mossad operation with pagers for Hezbollah

The pagers used by Hezbollah militants were developed and programmed by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. To read the encrypted message, it was necessary to hold down the buttons with both hands at once — this activated the explosives inside the device, the Washington Post reports, citing sources in the United States, Israel and The Middle East.

According to the publication, mined walkie-talkies began to be introduced in Lebanon by the Mossad back in 2015. Then the devices contained huge batteries, hidden explosives and a system for listening to militants. Mossad could have blown up the devices before, but decided to develop new, more compact pagers.

In the new pagers that Israel delivered to Lebanon under the Apollo brand, explosives could not be detected even in disassembled condition, according to WP interlocutors. According to sources, the Taiwanese Apollo brand was needed for cover, and the company itself did not know that they were sending offers to Hezbollah on their behalf.

The new pager, weighing about 85 grams, contained more powerful explosives, according to the publication's interlocutors. Other advantages offered to Hezbollah include a more powerful battery and the ability to charge from a cable. The special service has developed a special two-step procedure necessary to view secure messages.

"To read the message, you had to press two buttons. In practice, this meant using both hands," said one of the sources.

According to him, as a result of the subsequent explosion, users will almost certainly "injure two hands" and "be unable to fight."

On September 17, thousands of Apollo pagers rang or vibrated simultaneously throughout Lebanon and Syria. An inscription appeared on the screen in Arabic: "You have received an encrypted message." Hezbollah militants followed the instructions to check the coded messages by pressing two buttons — as a result, the devices exploded. Later, hundreds of other devices exploded — already with the help of a remote signal, WP writes.

As a result of the first series of explosions on September 17, 4 thousand people were injured, dozens died. According to Al-Hadath, about 500 Hezbollah members lost their eyesight due to the explosions of pagers. Hezbollah blamed Israel for the incident and promised a "heavy reckoning." The authorities of the latter said that Tel Aviv had nothing to do with the explosions, RBC reminds.