Explosion of Hezbollah Lebanon's Pagers Highlights Israeli Cyber Unit's Role

The simultaneous explosion of thousands of pagers belonging to members of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has brought attention to a secret cyber unit of the Israeli army known as "Unit 8200." According to Western sources, this intelligence unit of the Israeli Defense Forces played a role in designing this operation. Israeli officials have remained silent regarding this unconventional operation, which has so far left 12 dead and thousands injured among Hezbollah members. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, at least one person was killed due to the explosion of handheld radios and other communication devices used by Hezbollah. A senior Lebanese security source and another source told Reuters that Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, was responsible for a complex operation to plant a small amount of explosives inside five thousand imported pagers for Hezbollah in Lebanon. A Western security source also told Reuters that Unit 8200, a military unit that is not part of the Israeli intelligence agency, participated in the development of operations against Hezbollah that began over a year ago. This source stated that Unit 8200 was involved in the testing and incorporation of explosives into the devices during production. The Israeli army and the Prime Minister's Office, which oversees Mossad, did not respond to Reuters' request for comment. Yossi Kuperwasser, a former military intelligence official and current director of research at the Israel Defense and Security Forum, stated that there is no confirmation of Unit 8200's involvement in this attack. He added that members of this unit are among the best and brightest personnel in the Israeli army. This unit, which consists of a legion of young and elite soldiers, develops and utilizes intelligence-gathering tools and is often compared to the United States National Security Agency. In a rare statement in 2019, the Israeli army said that Unit 8200 helped thwart a ISIS airstrike against a Western country. At that time, it was announced that the unit's operations included intelligence gathering, cyber defense, and technology domain attacks. While Israel has not confirmed this, it is said that Unit 8200 played a role in the "Stuxnet" attack on Iran's nuclear centrifuges and also in countering some other prominent operations outside of Israel. Source: Reuters.