Turkish intel foils second pager bomb plot targeting Lebanon: Media
ANKARA
Türkiye’s intelligence agency thwarted a second large-scale pager attack just days after last year’s Israel deadly explosions last year that targeted Hezbollah members in Lebanon, Turkish media revealed on May 6, citing senior security sources.
In September 2024, Israel remotely detonated explosive-laden pagers across various Hezbollah-controlled areas in Lebanon, killing nine and injuring thousands. The operation, described by Mossad chief David Barnea as a “turning point in the north,” marked one of Israel’s most covert and technologically sophisticated strikes in recent memory.
However, according to newly surfaced reports, Türkiye’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) uncovered a subsequent attempt involving 1,300 identical pagers and 700 chargers — believed to be primed for similar attacks.
The devices were intercepted at Istanbul Airport in 61 boxes, days after the initial blasts and before being shipped to Lebanon, private TV channel CNN Türk said.
Bomb disposal experts found 3 grams of a white high-explosive substance in each pager, the report noted.
The chargers contained a dark brown, highly flammable liquid, believed to have been injected into their metal casing after production. Documents accompanying the shipment bizarrely listed “blender” as the fragmentation component, pointing to the unconventional assembly of the bombs.
The pagers were traced to Gold Apollo, a Taiwanese electronics firm. While the company denied involvement, it initially acknowledged that its trademark was licensed to Hungary-based Bac Consulting KFT — a firm later identified in media reports as a Mossad front.
In a symbolic gesture following the 2024 explosions, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gifted U.S. President Donald Trump a golden pager during his Washington visit in February.
