‘Truman Show’: Mossad agents reveal new details of 10-year exploding walkie-talkie and pager plot

Two former senior spies have revealed how they “create a pretend world” where “we’re the main actors”, likening it to The Truman Show.

Hezbollah members were using walkie-talkies booby trapped with explosives for 10 years before they were finally activated by Israel, two former Mossad agents have revealed.

The unidentified “recently retired” former senior agents, speaking to CBS’ 60 Minutes on Monday, have shared new details about the stunning levels of deception and trickery involved in the years-long plot by the feared Israeli spy agency to get exploding pagers and walkie-talkies into the hands of Hezbollah.

Extensive networks of shell companies and even fake YouTube ads touting the benefits of the “rugged” pagers were created in order to hide the fact that the devices were made in Israel, the agents explained.

“We create a pretend world,” one agent dubbed “Michael” said.

“We are a global production company. We write the screenplay, we’re the directors, we’re the producers, we’re the main actors. And the world is our stage.”

The second agent, “Gabriel”, likened it to The Truman Show where “everything is controlled by us behind the scene”.

“When they are buying from us, they have zero clue that they are buying from the Mossad,” he said.

“In their experience, everything is normal. Everything was 100 per cent kosher.”

A former Mossad agent speaks with 60 Minutes. Picture: CBS

On September 17, the Iranian-backed Lebanese terrorist group was left in shambles after thousands of pagers used by its members exploded at once.

The following day, the booby-trapped walkie-talkies also exploded — including some at funerals for those killed by the pagers.

About 30 people in total, including two children, were killed in the two attacks, while around 3000 were injured.

The attacks, seemingly out of nowhere, had a devastating psychological and operational impact on Hezbollah and marked a tipping point in the war on Israel’s northern border.

Israel launched a massive bombing campaign on Lebanon in the following days, killing more than 1000 people, many of them civilians.

Ten days after the pager attack, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in his Beirut headquarters by an Israeli bunker buster bomb.

A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect at the end of November.

Speaking to 60 Minutes, the former Mossad agents explained that the booby-trap plot began more than a decade ago with the weaponised walkie-talkies, which were designed to go into the chest pocket of a tactical vest for soldiers.

Mossad created fake YouTube ads for its explosive pagers. Picture: CBS

Michael said Hezbollah ultimately bought more than 16,000 of the devices, which “they got for a good price” — but not too low so as not to attract suspicion.

But Mossad also wanted to plant devices that Hezbollah members would have on them at all times, so in 2022 began working on the pagers, according to Gabriel.

He said Mossad learned that Hezbollah was buying pagers from Taiwanese company Gold Apollo, which were sleek and could fit into pockets.

The pagers needed to be larger to fit explosives inside. Gabriel said that when he first showed off the device to Mossad director Dadi Barnea “he was furious”.

“He was telling us, ‘There is no chance that anyone will buy such a big device. It’s not comfortable in their pocket. It’s heavy,’” he said.

Gabriel spent the next two weeks convincing his boss of the pager’s merits. YouTube ads were later created touting the pagers as being robust, dustproof and waterproof, with a long battery life. Fake online testimonials were also posted.

“It became the best product in the beeper area in the world,” Gabriel said.

Mossad did such a good job promoting the pager that people outside Hezbollah wanted to buy it.

The devices were tested using a glove held near a dummy’s face. Picture: CBS

“Obviously we didn’t send to anyone,” he said. “We just quote them with an expensive price.”

Mossad set up shell companies to trick Gold Apollo into a licensing partnership to sell the pagers to Hezbollah, which had purchased about 5000 by September 2024.

The devices were tested using a glove held near a dummy’s face to determine how much powdered explosive would be just enough to hurt the fighter but not the person next to him.

“We test everything, triple, double, multiple times in order to make sure there is minimum damage,” Gabriel said.

Mossad also conducted tests to find the right ringtone — a sound that was urgent enough to compel the wearer to take it out of their pocket — as well as to determine how long it takes a person to answer a pager.

On average, it was seven seconds, according to Gabriel.

The decision to finally activate the sleeping bombs was made by Mr Barnea after Mossad began to fear Hezbollah was getting suspicious of the devices.

At 3.30pm on September 17, pagers started exploding all over Lebanon, blowing off limbs and fingers, tearing holes in stomachs and leaving many blinded. Mayhem ensued as hospitals filled up with the maimed victims.

Gabriel said the aim of the walkie-talkie and pager plot wasn’t to kill people.

“If he’s just dead, so he’s dead,” he told 60 Minutes. “But if he [is] wounded, you have to take him to the hospital, take care of him. You need to invest money and effort. And those people without hands and eyes are living proof, walking in Lebanon, of ‘don’t mess with us’.”

Michael said the goal was intimidation.

“We want them to feel vulnerable, which they are,” he said.

“We can’t use the pagers again because we already did that. We’ve already moved on to the next thing. And they’ll have to keep on trying to guess what the next thing is.”

Originally published as ‘Truman Show’: Mossad agents reveal new details of 10-year exploding walkie-talkie and pager plot