Mossad: Beeper explosions, Nasrallah assassination operations so successful bordering on 'fantasy' - Yonah Jeremy Bob

 

by Yonah Jeremy Bob

The beeper explosions on September 17, 2024, were credited with shell-shocking Hezbollah into freezing under fire as it lost 3,500 agents and officials across Lebanon all at once with no warning.

 

Head of Mossad David Barnea attends a ceremony held at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem, as Israel marks the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day. April 23, 2025.

(photo credit: CHAIM GOLDBEG/FLASH90)

 

It was the Mossad’s cunningness, courage, and cutting-edge technology that led to its phenomenal successes in the September 2024 operations – the beeper explosions and the assassination of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah – the spy agency’s director, David Barnea, said on Tuesday.

Barnea spoke after dozens of Mossad personnel, who were photographed with their backs to the camera to obscure their identity, were given an award by the defense establishment at a ceremony attended by President Isaac Herzog, Defense Minister Israel Katz, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, Barnea, Acting Shin Bet director S, and the Defense Ministry’s Director-General, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amir Baram.

 

An agent – only named G – who recruits and handles spies, delivered a rare disclosed speech on behalf of the rest of the Mossad teams involved in the Lebanon operations.

 

G said that “during the operation to assassinate Nasrallah, our agents acted with courage and determination in the heart of Beirut while under fire in order to provide precise intelligence for the operation.”

When the Mossad first started to brainstorm the operations, many of them thought they were so ambitious that they bordered on fantasy, G said.

People walk near an ambulance outside American University of Beirut Medical Center as people, including Hezbollah terrorists and medics, were wounded and killed when the pagers they use to communicate exploded across Lebanon, in Beirut, Lebanon September 17, 2024. (credit: MOHAMED AZAKIR/REUTERS)

The explosions on September 17, 2024, were credited with shell-shocking Hezbollah – so much so that it froze under fire as it lost 3,500 agents and officials across Lebanon all at once and without prior warning.

Nasrallah's assassination finished off most of Hezbollah's capabilities

Further, the assassination of Nasrallah 10 days later on September 27, 2024, was credited with finishing off most of Hezbollah’s command and control capabilities and broader will to fight.

Although the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah went on until November 27, 2024, for most of that time, Hezbollah caused little strategic harm to Israel, while the Mossad and the IDF destroyed 70%-80% of Hezbollah’s missile and rocket capabilities and eliminated the Lebanese terrorist groups’ entire position in southern Lebanon during a multi-month IDF invasion there.

 

During the award’s ceremony, Herzog urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to convert the defense establishment’s military achievements into a “day after” plan for Gaza to solidify the long-term diplomatic gains.Herzog implied that Netanyahu would need to show courage in that regard, compared to the choice of just keeping the war going indefinitely and avoiding a practical “day after” plan in order to keep his more extreme coalition partners from toppling his government.

 

At the same awards ceremony, the 2025 Israel Defense Prize was given to five other outstanding projects that significantly contributed to Israel’s national security and preserved its technological and operational superiority, particularly during the Israel-Hamas War.

 

Regarding the Eitan armored personnel carrier (APC), an award was presented to the Defense Ministry’s Merkava and Armored Vehicles Directorate and the Defense Procurement Directorate; the IDF Ground Forces’ armament for systems department and School for Operational Mobility; the Medical Corps within the IDF’s Technological and Logistics Directorate; and the IDF’s Nahal Brigade, for developing and producing the Eitan, an 8X8 wheeled APC specifically adapted for infantry operations and capable of operating in threat-saturated combat environments with unprecedented capabilities.

 

The Eitan enabled the rescue of hundreds of soldiers during the war, predominantly from Gaza.

 

When it comes to the Shavit, Eitam, and Oron mission aircraft, an award was presented to the Defense Ministry’s Defense, Research and Development Directorate, the Israel Aerospace Industries, the Israel Air Force, the Israel Navy, and the Military Intelligence Directorate, for developing and operating these aircraft.

 

Throughout the current war, these platforms defended Israeli airspace, maintaining intelligence superiority and extending the Jewish state’s operational reach, especially in long-range intelligence collection and detection.

 

The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) was awarded for developing a new system that delivered “breakthrough technological capabilities that enable penetrating high-value targets and enemy infrastructure when operated by the Shin Bet’s field units in coordination with the Military Intelligence Directorate’s technological-intelligence abilities.”

 

Elbit Systems received an award for developing a classified technology, and the IDF Medical Corps received a prize for the cutting-edge use of “whole blood” transfusions to save the lives of wounded soldiers.

Yonah Jeremy Bob

Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-866110

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