In military matters, some tactics have effects far, far beyond the initial impact. The recent, sudden explosions of Hezbollah pagers is one such; no Hezbollah nutcase will ever again look at his pager or cellular phone again without seeing a grenade.
It gets better. Now, a report published in the New York Post reveals that the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad, purportedly intercepted Hezbollah’s shipment of pagers and loaded them with PETN, a potent high-explosive.
The Israeli spy agency Mossad allegedly intercepted Hezbollah’s shipment of new pagers months ago and rigged them with high explosives — resulting in the stunning attack on the Lebanese terror group Tuesday, according to a new report.
Mossad agents reportedly placed Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), a highly explosive material, inside the batteries of the pagers, sources told Sky News Arabia, according to a translation from the Times of Israel.
The devices were then detonated by an external signal that caused the batteries inside to overheat, the sources added.
Now, that’s a clever play.
PETN — Pentaerythritol tetranitrate — is structurally similar to nitroglycerine, and like nitroglycerin, it has been around a while, having been created and patented in Germany in 1894, and used in military applications by Germany in World Wars 1 and 2. The use of a German-created high explosive by Mossad to ruin the whole day of a bunch of Hezbollah terrorists, well, if that’s not the greatest irony of the year, it will do until a greater example comes along.
Imagine the long-term implications of this. Hezbollah nutcases will never again feel comfortable carrying a pager or cellular phone. At a minimum, the terror group will have to change its buying practices; it appears since Mossad was able to intercept one shipment and load the devices with PETN, they were placing mass orders from a single source. Smart money says that if they keep using pagers, they won’t do that anymore.
There’s always a way around things like this, but now Israel has Hezbollah reacting to them rather than the other way around, which is never a bad situation to be in.
Previously on RedState: NEW: Iran’s Ambassador to Lebanon Reportedly Injured by Exploding Pager
WATCH: Israel Hacked Pagers of Hezbollah Fighters and Made Them Explode, Hundreds of Injuries Reported
Heartwarming Tales of Terrorists Blowing Themselves Up
What’s more, reacting is all Hezbollah is doing.
The complex operation resulted in a mass attack against Hezbollah operatives, killing nine people and leaving some 2,800 others injured when the pagers detonated on Tuesday morning across Lebanon and in parts of Syria.
Hezbollah confirmed that many of its fighters and medics were injured by the blasts, with one official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, calling it the “biggest security breach” since the group began its near-daily attacks on Israel on Oct. 8.
So there’s the standard, Israel: This is the biggest security breach since October 8th. That sets the bar, and it will be interesting to see if Israel can top that in their next operation. Hezbollah has already ceased the use of cellular phones due to the concern that they may be traced and that their locations could be ascertained; that’s accurate enough. But now it’s very apparent that pagers aren’t the answer. Maybe next, they’ll resort to carrier pigeons.
This once again proves the old maxim: There is no problem that cannot be solved with the suitable application of high explosives.
