Estimated reading time: 13 minutes
Israel’s “Grim Beeper” gambit seeded Hezbollah with booby-trapped pagers and radios, then lit them all up at once. What led up to it, how it worked, and what it cost.
Table of contents
- Israel’s Independence: How a Tiny State Survived and Hit Back
- Jewish Contributions: Why a Small Population Punches Heavy
- Israel Defense Force From Six-Day Gamble to Strategic Reach
- Hate Inc: How Hezbollah’s Rage Fueled a Fatal Blind Spot
- Gaza Tragedy Context and Consequence
- Operation Grim Beeper: The Masterstroke Exploding Pagers
- Nasrallah’s September 19 Statement and What Followed
- Inside the Details How the Pager Supply Chain Was Flipped
- Hit One Message Then Detonation
- It Gets Worse: The Radios Blew Next
- The Butcher’s Bill: What the Pagers and Radios Cost
- Key Operation Facts Quick Reference
- Related Reads from GunsAmerica Digest
Israel’s Independence: How a Tiny State Survived and Hit Back
I don’t know where you stand on the whole “God’s Chosen People” thing. I have spent some time in Israel myself, and it is a predominantly secular country today. However, it’s tough to make a dispassionate assessment of Israeli history since 1948 and not think that there is something supernatural going on there.
Israel declared its independence on 14 May 1948. The following day, the surrounding Arab nations launched a coordinated attack to push the nascent nation into the sea. Despite suffocating arms embargoes and being lyrically outnumbered, the fledgling country inexplicably prevailed. The Israelis have been fighting pretty much ever since.
Antisemitism likewise baffles me. I was incredibly impressed with the Jewish work ethic and sense of community. Every piece of that country is put to some kind of good use. It is all neat and well-maintained. By contrast, the Palestinian Territories looked like Mogadishu. If they just formed a line and swept through their communities picking up the trash, they could double their property values. It was weird.
Jewish Contributions: Why a Small Population Punches Heavy
I’m not Jewish, but the Jews have made an objectively outsized contribution to the modern world. The ballpoint pen, the polio vaccine, the Polaroid camera, cell phones, the word processor, video games, the pressure cooker, Google, and those ridiculous yakkity-yak wind-up chattering novelty teeth are all Jewish inventions. Jews represent 0.2% of the world’s population, yet 216 of history’s 965 Nobel Laureates have been either Jewish or had one Jewish parent. That’s 22%. The Jews have produced 110 times as many Nobel Prize winners as the general population.
Israel Defense Force From Six-Day Gamble to Strategic Reach
In 1967, Israel was surrounded by Arab nations planning yet another coordinated attack. They were severely outnumbered in tanks, guns, infantry, and combat aircraft. On 5 June, the IDF (Israel Defense Force) launched a preemptive attack against long odds. Six days later, those hopelessly outnumbered Israelis were threatening Amman, Cairo, and Damascus. In less than a week, the Israelis had seized 27,000 square miles of territory, effectively tripling their land area.
Frantic intervention in the UN halted the Israeli armored advances. The Six-Day War gained Israel Gaza, the Sinai, the Golan Heights, and the West Bank, including Jerusalem. My point is simply that, were I a betting man, I would not bet against the Israelis on the battlefield.
Hate Inc: How Hezbollah’s Rage Fueled a Fatal Blind Spot
Local Arabs call the Six-Day War “The Setback.” They seethe with hatred for the Jews and the Jewish state. Both sides have ample blood on their hands, and the issue of expanding settlements is a perennial thorn. However, this hatred feeds terrorist organizations from all points of the compass, all of which are bankrolled by Iran.
Hamas is an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya. This translates to “Islamic Resistance Movement.” Hamas thrived in Gaza until 7 October 2023. On that one bloody day, Hamas terrorists infiltrated neighboring Israeli communities and slaughtered some 1,200 Israelis. Scaled up to our population, that is the equivalent of Mexican narco-terrorists coming across our southern border and killing some 42,000 Americans…in a single day.
As one might imagine, the Israelis did not respond well to that. Neither would we. Since then, the IDF has systematically deconstructed both Hamas and Gaza. The Gaza Strip is now 140 square miles of rubble and misery. Hamas is castrated and leaderless.
Gaza Tragedy Context and Consequence
The situation in Gaza is undeniably tragic. However, nobody forced those guys to murder those 1,200 Israelis. Were Hamas to hand over the rest of the surviving hostages and stop killing innocent Israelis, the war would be over tomorrow.
An Addendum–since I first typed these words some while ago, that’s pretty much what finally happened.
On the northern front, you have Hezbollah. Hezbollah means “Party of God” in Arabic. Founded in 1982 and based in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah is an armed terrorist network the size of a modest army. At least, they were the size of a modest army before they began lobbing rockets into northern Israel. That got the IDF activated. Now, most of their leadership positions remain vacant, and the organization is a shell of its former self. A big part of that is because of Operation Grim Beeper.
Operation Grim Beeper: The Masterstroke Exploding Pagers
They actually call it that. The Israeli attack wherein they infiltrated more than a thousand booby-trapped exploding pagers into Lebanon is indeed known as Operation Grim Beeper. So long as you do not harbor any undue affection for Hezbollah terrorists, it could almost be funny.
“There is no doubt that we have been subjected to a major security and humanitarian blow that is unprecedented in the history of the resistance in Lebanon, at least, and unprecedented in the history of Lebanon.”
Nasrallah’s September 19 Statement and What Followed
Eight days after Hassan Nasrallah, then Secretary-General of Hezbollah, spoke those words he was dead, buried underneath untold tons of rubble after a focused Israeli airstrike in Beirut. The “humanitarian blow” to which the master terrorist referred was one of the most audacious and effective covert operations in military history.
Inside the Details How the Pager Supply Chain Was Flipped
I’m pretty boring myself. I don’t fear government surveillance, because I seldom have anything incendiary to say. Being tedious is kind of my superpower. However, if any of you gentle readers might be moonlighting as terrorists or drug lords, you might want to ditch your cell phones. Give him a reason to do so, and Uncle Sam can steal every word you share on that thing. The Israelis were doing the same stuff in southern Lebanon. As a result, the Hezbollah leadership figured they would go old school. They put out feelers for a group buy on a bunch of retro pagers.
Outside of hospitals, not very many people use pagers anymore. When I was a medical resident, I despised these things. The appeal from a military perspective is that they do not transmit; they only receive. As a result, they cannot be tracked. That means pagers can be used to disseminate information without producing any usable targeting data. However, the Israelis saw this as an opportunity.
Somewhere around February 2024, Hezbollah leadership began distributing thousands of Gold Apollo AR-924 pagers to its subordinate commands. They chose this particular model predominantly because of its legendary battery life. They only needed to be charged once a month or so. Hezbollah also got a great deal on them. Even terrorists need to be responsible stewards of their finances.
The Pager Plot Front Companies, Reprogramming, and PETN
The pagers came as a bulk purchase from a company based in Budapest called BAC Consulting Kft. Three years before, BAC had entered into a licensing agreement with the Taiwanese Gold Apollo Company to produce these pagers. The funds passed through a variety of shell companies that made the digital fingerprint impossible to decipher. When investigators later went to the address of record for BAC in Hungary, they found an empty office sporting a sheet of paper taped to the door with the company name handwritten on it. It seems that BAC, along with all the rest, was actually a front for the Israeli Mossad.
The Mossad purchased 5,000 pagers well in advance, disassembled them, and replaced part of the internal battery with a PETN explosive charge. They also reprogrammed the devices. The Mossad then carefully repackaged the things and sold them to Hezbollah. The truly ironic part is that Hezbollah actually paid for it all.
Hit One Message Then Detonation
On 17 September 2024, at around 1530 local, pagers across Lebanon and Syria vibrated and beeped simultaneously. The pagers read, “You Have an Important Message,” and then displayed an error notice. To clear the error, operators were directed to press two buttons on the device simultaneously. This ensured that both hands were on the device and that it was held close to the face. That’s when they exploded.
The pagers that were not answered detonated anyway. Thousands of Hezbollah terrorists lost eyes, fingers, and hands. Security footage taken in a market in Beirut showed a Hezbollah terrorist getting his balls blown off. Here’s the link.
12 people died, several of whom were reportedly civilians. There were purportedly two children counted among them. If the reports are to be believed, some 2,750 civilians were injured. However, these are terrorists. They lie a lot.
It Gets Worse: The Radios Blew Next
The following day, Hezbollah was reeling from the attack. There were indignant protests and noisy funeral processions for the recently deceased. That’s when their walkie-talkies exploded.
The walkie-talkies were handheld ICOM IC-V82 VHF models. Curiously, I have a very similar device as a backup radio in my little fighter plane. I have no idea where mine originally came from. I can only hope it wasn’t Lebanon.
Just like Gold Apollo, the ICOM company immediately distanced itself from these devices. Manufacture of the IC-V82 ceased in 2014. They had issued a warning previously about knockoff radios being produced under their name.
The Butcher’s Bill: What the Pagers and Radios Cost
The Lebanese health ministry reported that 300 people were completely blinded, while a further 500 lost one eye in the attacks. Iran deployed a dozen physicians to Lebanon to help treat the injuries. An anonymous Hezbollah official admitted that the attacks removed 1,500 front-line fighters from the zone of conflict. The total death toll was reported at 42 with nearly 4,000 wounded.
Mojtaba Amini, the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, lost an eye in the attack. That begs the question as to why he was packing a Hezbollah terrorist pager in the first place. While the Iranians claim to be all peaceful and fun-loving, the entire planet knows better.
READ MORE HERE: The Gory Demise of Abu Sayyaf: Timeless Tools to Terminate a Terrorist
Inside the Operation Seeding, Pricing, and Intercepts
The unfiltered audacity of all this was frankly amazing. The Mossad began the operation back in 2015 by producing slick marketing videos aimed at Hezbollah decision makers, touting the many benefits of this particular pager and radio. Lots of folks, other than Hezbollah, showed interest. However, the Mossad quoted an inflated price for non-Hezbollah customers while offering the devices to the terrorist organization below cost. Hezbollah was thrilled to get them. The Turkish National Intelligence Organization later intercepted a further 1,300 pagers and 700 chargers at the Istanbul Airport that were laden with explosives and also destined for Lebanon. It seems one should indeed never cross the Israelis. They tend to take their vengeance quite seriously.
Key Operation Facts Quick Reference
| Operation Name | Operation Grim Beeper |
|---|---|
| Trigger Date | 17 September 2024 |
| Primary Devices | Gold Apollo AR-924 pagers |
| Secondary Devices | ICOM IC-V82 handheld VHF radios |
| Explosive | PETN charge in modified battery |
| Reported Impact | Thousands injured; multiple blinded; front-line losses admitted by Hezbollah |
Related Reads from GunsAmerica Digest
- The Gory Demise of Abu Sayyaf: Timeless Tools to Terminate a Terrorist
- More Military and History Coverage
- All Posts Tagged Israel
Available on GunsAmerica Now
Will is still trying to figure out what he really wants to be when he grows up. However, shooting guns and claiming it was work seemed like a pretty sweet hustle. As a result, Will serendipitously transformed an avocation into a vocation.
Raised in the Mississippi Delta, Will flew UH1H, OH58A/C, CH47D and AH1S helicopters operationally as an Army Aviator. He is SCUBA-qualified and has parachuted out of perfectly good airplanes at 3 o’clock in the morning. Will has summited Mount McKinley, Alaska, six times…always at the controls of an Army helicopter, which is the only way sensible folk climb mountains.
Will has delivered sixty babies and occasionally wrung human blood out of his socks. He is married to his high school sweetheart and has three awesome adult children. Turn-ons include vintage German machineguns, flying his sexy-cool RV6A airplane, Count Chocula cereal and the movie “Aliens.”
www.word-monkey.com
Experience:
-Professional Writer-thousands of publishing credits for dozens of titles
-Mechanical Engineer/Practicing Physician
-Instrument-rated Commercial Pilot
-Sunday School Teacher
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that young Palestinian boy showing you a “V” sign with his hand is most likely not being particularly friendly. In many cultures outside of the US, this gesture is the equivalent of the upraised middle finger here.
As sad as this is to disclose, I have a doctorate degree in nonverbal communication. This may have something to do with the fact that I’m currently unemployed.
I thoroughly enjoy your articles and this one in particular. Thank you for shedding light on this operation!
Yeah, about that. We weren’t really that tight. I got the impression they’d cut my throat given half a chance.
Gotta love the operation’s tongue-in-cheek name! They ARE God’s Chosen People, as I’m sure you know, being a fellow evangelical Christian, yourself. They may not be perfect… no one who ever walked on earth was, except Jesus Christ Himself. He has, and will continue to, both judge and deliver His People. The so-called “replacement theory”, that purports Christians as the “new” chosen people, has no biblical basis whatsoever. I recently cut ties with both Tucker Carlson and the Heritage Foundation over what is now ever-increasing anti-jewish and anti-Israel propaganda/hatred. The recent worldwide explosion of antisemitism, directly fulfills many eschatological prophecies. It’s all in the Word.
I thought that Jesus promised that Gentiles, with the impartiality of a sunrise, would also be fellow heirs to the salvation by God as written in Ephesians 3:6. I have never heard of any serious link to “replacement theory” and the most essential key to salvation, belief in the Divinity of Christ.
Reading the article, I was kind of surprised when establishment of Christianity was not listed as the greatest and only relevant achievement that could counter the devastation of the Diaspora, Marxism, Communism, Collectivization, Holodomor, Zionism etc. After all, it was many of the Jewish people who accepted Christ as the promised Savior who were then forced from the Temple. As outcasts, they established Christianity and the Catholic Church with all the similar Jewish traditions.
Not sure how high-tech mega Protestant churches would have reached the masses before modern conveniences. Very few people could even afford one Bible to study in the first thousand plus years of illiteracy.
As I look at the 10 Commandments, I notice that 8 commandments state “thou shall not” while two others state “thou shall.” None of the Commandments warned against any type of hatred, not even “antisemitism.” Later Jesus urged his followers to “love thy enemy” as part of the “New Covenant.” Of the 4 different types of love, outlined from ancient Greek philosophers, Jesus most surely meant a well-meaning form of charity and not some phony self-induced emotion. To me, the New Testament seems like a significant departure from the “Old Covenant” and major expansion from the Commandments delivered to Moses on Mount Sinia. One thing Jesus also confirms, we all have enemies.
You don’t fuck with the Israelis. They don’t get mad, they get even – no matter how long it takes. Where did they learn this important tactic? The USA of course. We were still killing rag-heads 20 years after 9/11. Look at Japan after blindsiding us on December 7th, 1941. Yeah, it took 4 years. Don’t think for one second the USA is a bunch of pacifist pussy’s! And neither are the Israelis.