A senior Iranian military official revealed that Tehran had warned Hezbollah about the pagers Israel used in its covert operation that killed and injured the group’s operatives last year.
Mohammad Reza Naqdi, deputy commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for coordination, said in an interview that Iran had cautioned Hezbollah not to rely on the communication devices that were later remotely detonated by Israel.
Footage of pager explosions in Lebanon
“They said the pagers were cheaper than the Iranian ones,” Naqdi recounted.
The Iranian commander also addressed the recent fighting between Israel and Iran, claiming that the IRGC’s underground missile cities were not damaged and that Iran’s missile capabilities had not suffered significant losses.
Following the so-called “pager operation,” a senior Hezbollah source told Reuters that around 1,500 of the group’s operatives were rendered unfit for combat, with many losing their sight or limbs in the blasts. Reuters described the event as a “serious blow” to Hezbollah but noted that those affected represented only a small portion of the group’s total forces.
Earlier this year, Mossad Director David Barnea described the pager operation as “a reflection of deep intelligence penetration, technological superiority, and top-tier operational capability.”
“The day thousands of pagers exploded in the hands of Hezbollah operatives will be remembered as the turning point in the war,” Barnea said. “That was the day cunning triumphed over brute force. The total explosive power in all the devices combined was no more than that of a single standard land mine — but the psychological impact was immense.”
The pager operation, launched on September 17, 2024, caused mysterious explosions across Lebanon. Local reports spoke of numerous casualties, while Reuters quickly confirmed hundreds of injured Hezbollah operatives.
A Hezbollah official later admitted to the Qatari newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that “Israel hacked into the organization’s communication devices and detonated them.”