Pager attack was years in the making: Ex-Israeli agents

Two recently retired senior Israeli intelligence agents shared new details about a deadly clandestine operation years in the making that targeted Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and Syria using exploding pagers and walkie talkies three months ago.

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Hezbollah began striking Israel almost immediately after Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack that sparked the Israel-Hamas war.

The agents spoke with CBS "60 Minutes" in a segment aired on Sunday night. They wore masks and spoke with altered voices to hide their identities.

One agent said the operation started 10 years ago using walkie-talkies laden with hidden explosives, which Hezbollah didn't realise it was buying from Israel, its enemy. The walkietalkies were not detonated until September, a day after boobytrapped pagers were set off.

"We created a pretend world," said the officer, who went by the name "Michael".

Phase two of the plan, using the booby-trapped pagers, kicked in 2022 after Israel's Mossad intelligence agency learned Hezbollah had been buying pagers from a Taiwanbased company, the second officer said.