Israel’s unprecedented James Bond-style strike against Hezbollah sends message to Iran

Hundreds of pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon. Picture: X

Israel has speared Hezbollah through the heart with its James Bond style exploding pager assault on it fighters, greatly weakening the terror group’s ability to strike back and provoke a broader war in the Middle East.

Israel’s pager attack on Hezbollah was one of the most astonishing and devastating intelligence attacks in history, not only dealing a savage blow to the militant group but also sending a chilling message to the terror puppet master Iran.

The attack on about 3000 Hezbollah members across Lebanon was so outrageous and unexpected that it could have come from a Bond movie or a science-fiction novel rather than real life.

But the real-life outcome of this attack, in which many hundreds of Hezbollah fighters and commanders have been maimed, is yet to unfold.

From Israel’s perspective, the attack appears to have been ­Mossad’s finest hour. The Israeli intelligence service appears to have secretly intercepted a new batch of pagers ordered by ­Hezbollah and inserted explosives into each one, to be detonated ­remotely and en masse.

Ironically, the pagers were only ordered because Hezbollah deemed mobile phones to be too easily compromised by Mossad.

The genius of such an attack, from Israel’s perspective, was that because the pagers were only handed out to Hezbollah members, the vast majority of those ­injured by the exploding pagers were directly linked to the terror group, with minimal innocent lives lost.

As such, the pager attack is ­likely to do more damage to Hezbollah than anything we have seen previously because it has disabled thousands of its fighters while ­destroying the ability of the group to communicate and plot new attacks.

It came at a powder-keg ­moment when tensions between Hezbollah at Israel were already at the highest since October 7 last year, with both sides locked into a low level war while trying to avoid an all-out conflict.

The attack – which was clearly months in the planning – was timed to coincide with a stated push by Israel to broaden its war aims to include the safe return of some 60,000 Israelis who have been displaced from their villages in northern Israel by the almost daily missile and drone attacks by Hezbollah from southern ­Lebanon.

Israel has been looking for a way, short of all-out war, to persuade Hezbollah to stop its regular attacks on northern Israel.

So will the pager attack, which has injured as many as 3000 Hezbollah-connected people, many of them seriously, persuade Hezbollah’s leadership to end their proxy war with Israel?

That is unknown but the attack has severely embarrassed the terror group which, despite vowing revenge, has now been weakened.

It is a terrifying reminder to both Hezbollah and its terror masters in Iran of Israel’s ability to kill its fighters and – as recent assassinations have shown – its commanders at home.

Hezbollah has played a dangerous game with Israel for almost a year since the Hamas attacks of October 7, harassing Israel while avoiding a full-scale war. So far, the terror group’s bark has been far worse than its bite, and there is ­little reason to believe that the pager attack will suddenly embolden Hezbollah to risk all-out war with Israel.

It is possible that Hezbollah may continue its low-level conflict with Israel, where each side fires almost daily shots across the border at the other.

But Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has signalled that he is losing patience with the status quo and that he now wants Israelis to be able to ­return safely to their homes in the north.

If Hezbollah does not stop its low-scale harassment, it is likely that Israel will step up its military offensive against Hezbollah, up to and including sending ground troops into southern Lebanon.

The pager attack was a huge shot across the bow of Hezbollah at a critical time. It won’t guarantee an outbreak of peace but it will strengthen, rather than weaken, Israel’s hand in its ongoing tussle with the terror group.