Israeli intelligence has been monitoring an attack using explosive-laden communications devices for some time, a US source said.
Israeli intelligence services have been contemplating an operation similar to this week's massive explosions of Hezbollah electronic devices for at least 15 years, a U.S. intelligence source told ABC News.
Thousands of people have been injured in Lebanon in a series of explosions linked to pagers, walkie-talkies and other equipment used by the militant group. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the incident, although media outlets have widely described it as a Mossad plot involving rigging the devices with remote-activated explosive charges.
Speaking to ABC News, a US source called it a “supply chain interdiction”, He added that the CIA has long been reluctant to employ similar tactics because of the risk of collateral damage. In Lebanon, children were among the two dozen people killed in the attack, which also left many victims maimed.
The New York Times previously reported that the supply of sabotaged devices began in the summer of 2023, citing several officials familiar with the operation.
The ABC News report suggested that BAC Consulting, a Hungary-based company subcontracted by Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Gold Apollo to produce pagers for Hezbollah, was an Israeli front.
The devices were never in Hungary and BAC was “a commercial intermediary, without a manufacturing or operations site” in the country, a government spokesman told the outlet.
Taiwan's administration has distanced the autonomous Chinese island from the wave of violence in Lebanon.
“The components are (mainly) low-end integrated circuits and batteries,” Economy Minister Kuo Jyh-huei spoke to reporters on Friday, Reuters reported. “I can say with certainty that they were not made in Taiwan.”
Beirut and Hezbollah leaders have blamed Israel for the incident and declared that Lebanon is now in a state of war with its neighbor.
The Israel Defense Forces stepped up cross-border attacks on Thursday, in what observers fear could be a prelude to a major ground invasion. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced on Wednesday a “New phase in the war” With the militant move, an Israeli commando division previously involved in military actions in Gaza has moved north amid heightened tensions.
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Israel launched large-scale military action in Lebanon in 1982 (leading to a three-year partial occupation and the rise of Hezbollah as a prominent military and political force) and again in 2006, in what turned out to be a month-long incursion.
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