These sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, gave the American daily details on this unprecedented operation, attributed by the Lebanese Islamist movement to Israel.
The small devices, manufactured by Gold Apollo in Taiwan, were intercepted by Israeli services before their arrival in Lebanon, according to these officials. A few dozen grams of explosive material were inserted next to the battery with a trigger, the daily specifies.
At 3:30 p.m. Tuesday in Lebanon, a message appearing to come from Hezbollah leadership caused the device to beep for several seconds before triggering the explosive, according to the American daily, still citing several anonymous sources.
Hezbollah infiltrated
More than 3,000 units, mainly of the AP924 model, had been ordered by Hezbollah from Taiwan’s Gold Apollo company, the sources said.
The information from the American daily supports the theory, put forward Tuesday by several experts, according to which the Israeli services managed to infiltrate the Hezbollah logistics chain to plan this attack.
A Source close to the movement had earlier indicated to AFP that “the beepers which exploded concern a shipment recently imported by Hezbollah of 1000 devices”, which according to him appeared to have been “hacked at Source”.