THOUSANDS of pagers are being carried in Lebanon which may still contain explosives, experts warned last night.
Scores of Hezbollah commanders were killed and hundreds injured after communication devices were detonated in a coordinated attack said to have been carried out by Israel last week.
Tel Aviv delivered another hammer blow to the Iran-backed terrorist organisation this weekend after launching an air strike which killed two senior commanders.
Ibrahim Aqil and Ahmed Wahbi died alongside 10 other commanders and 16 soldiers of the elite Radwan unit tasked with carrying out attacks in northern Israel.
The airstrike targeted Beirut’s Dahieh suburb, a known Hezbollah stronghold, killing 37 people and injuring a further 66.
Israeli officials said they were “planning Hezbollah’s ‘Conquer the Galilee’ attack plan, in which Hezbollah intended to infiltrate Israeli communities and murder innocent civilians.
It was the latest blow against the terrorist group, which lost a further 26 senior to mid-level commanders after Israel detonated booby-trapped pagers and walkie talkies on Tuesday and Wednesday in an operation intended to paralyse its command and control structure.
Part of the “unprecedented success” of last week’s operation – for which Israel has not formally taken responsibility – is due to the targeting of devices which use ”old tech”.
Last night counter-terror experts told how it required unfettered access to pager production facilities in Hungary, where every unit would have been tampered with.
Modification would have included replacing old fashioned Nicad batteries with smaller Lithium ones, creating a space inside the unit in which to place 25 grams of plastic explosives.
Hezbollah acquired the devices around five months ago, according to a security source, who added that the terror group thought it was buying the pagers from Taiwan firm Gold Apollo.
The walkie-talkies, purchased around the same time as the pagers, had labels bearing the name of Osaka-based Icom and the phrase “Made in Japan”.
Both companies have ruled out the possibility that any of the deadly components were made in factories in either of their home locations.
“The pager operation was unprecedented anywhere in the world – it’s the sort of stuff that Churchill’s secret army, SOE and later Q branch, dreamed about,” said Maj Chris Hunter, a former army bomb disposal expert who inspired the Hollywood movie The Hurt Locker.
His later involvement in military intelligence led him to give evidence in the Hague against the Hezbollah murderers of Lebanese PM Rafic al-Hariri in 2005.
Despite the tragic deaths of two children – one is believed to have heard his father’s pager and was passing it to him when it went off – and hundreds of victims said to have been partially blinded by fragments, the amount of explosive was designed to limit collateral injuries, said Hunter.
“Each device would have been loaded with around 25 grammes of plastic explosve. Usually, that amount in an open space will do next to nothing other than to the primary contact. Relatively speaking the collateral damage rate is very low.”
He added: “What people don’t realise is any first world intelligence agency is capable of carrying out a mission like this.
“We can manipulate any electrical device and turn it into a bomb. We use to reverse the process and neutralise them. “
He told how a typical oprsation of this kind would work.
“Once you know who the supplier is, it is straightforward. You get access to the production one by offering financial inducements or blackmail – old school tradecraft,” he said.
“You then get your technicians in there and insert designated nefarious components into the devices.”
He warned that every device on the production line one would have been tampered with.
“Once the numbers to the pagers are assigned, you then know which to target. The rest are left in the wind , even though they still contain explosives, he said.
“There are potentially thousands of units in Lebanon today which still contain explosives.”
Following Wednesday’s walkie tallkie explosions, Israel‘s defence minister Yoav Gallant declared a “new phase” of the regional war as it moves its focus to the north to its border with Lebanon.
Yesterday Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched two wave of attacks – one attacking about 290 targets, and a second targeting 110 sites – across southern Lebanon as sirens warning of Hezbollah rocket attacks sounded in dozens of towns across northern Israel.
About 10 rockets are believed to crossed over from Lebanon, with most intercepted, the IDF said. Israel’s emergency medical services reported that a man was lightly wounded by shrapnel from a missile that was intercepted in a village in the lower Galilee.
In June, senior IDF commanders told the Sunday Express that every effort would be made to secure the return of more than 60,000 displaced Israelis to their homes in the north, after Hezbollah rocket and missile atatcks forced their evacuation.
“Whether through diplomacy or force this situation must be resolved by September,” said one IDF commander, adding that any military solution would necessitate IDF boots on the ground in Lebanon.
“Our children cannot afford to miss another year of school.”