How Mossad Did It: The Beepers Caper

Mossad, as the world now knows, managed to produce thousands of beepers with explosives inside, and to sell them to one unsuspecting buyer, Hezbollah, which then distribute it to thousands of its members. At a certain point, close to 4,000 of those beepers exploded simultaneously, and 3,800 Hezbollah members were wounded so severely that they were no longer fit for combat. This was one of the most successful and devastating acts of sabotage in military history. No Hollywood spy thriller is as riveting. More on how the Mossad did it can be found here: “Inside Israel’s secret operation to turn Hezbollah’s beepers into bombs – exclusive,” by Yonah Jeremy Bob, Jerusalem Post, May 21, 2026:

The whole world was shocked out of its wits on September 17-18, 2024, when the Mossad brought the mighty 150,000-rocket-wielding Hezbollah terror army to its knees in an instant with a “fleet” of exploding beepers. Or, rather, almost the whole world, excluding the Mossad operatives and defense officials who ran the operation, such as “Adam Feyn,” who recently published a book in Hebrew, Hoda’ah Goralit (Fateful Message), about the operation and gave his first English-language interview about it to The Jerusalem Post.

In his interview with the Post and in his book, Feyn made a series of stunning dramatic reveals about the operation.

These include how the Mossad lured a Hezbollah operative into an ambush to prevent him from exposing the beepers; the true story regarding how close Iran was to uncovering the plot; fleshing out how hard it was to get Hezbollah to lower its suspicions sufficiently for it to buy the beepers; showing how unwitting third parties were used by the Mossad to sell Hezbollah on the beepers; how the Mossad later tried to make good to such innocent third parties where it could; and how the Mossad’s gym and many other leisure areas were effectively converted into a beeper assembly line when the agency had to jump the pace of its production and had insufficient space to do so using its standard operations areas.

During the interview and in the book, Feyn also provided new insights into, and details of, key strategic moments when top Mossad or other Israeli officials gambled and took history in one direction instead of another, despite the “right” choice being covered in a haze of fog….

Feyn readily acknowledged that “there was a price on the family. Anyone in the defense establishment who spends extended times in operations overseas knows how much of a challenge it is to preserve a loving family.”

“You can be ‘present’ even when not physically present, such as speaking on the phone to make sure children study for a test and to be really happy with them when they achieve things,” he said. Feyn stated, “We need to work on this all the time. You need to help them have a normal life. And you need their willingness, resilience, and support over many years. When you are in Israel, you cannot just go out alone or with friends on a long biking trip. The family must always come first,” added Feyn.

Part of the formula does often involve Mossad and defense officials taking a year or multiple years off to refresh themselves in the normal civilian world in between an otherwise intelligence-focused career. Both of the last two Mossad directors, Barnea and Cohen, spent time outside of the Mossad before returning for higher positions….

The concern by Mossad for the family life of its agents, and the awareness of the toll such work takes on its operatives, so that they then are given years off, to take a break and to re-enter the civilian world, before returning to the world of spycraft, was one of the most touching parts of this story.

So that’s how the Mossad pulled off this remarkable feat of sabotage that wounded nearly 4,000 Hezbollah operatives so severely that they could not return to combat.

Even as I write this, I have no doubt that Mossad is hard at work planning more spectacular ways to undermine its mortal enemies — Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran — in short, targeting all those who would destroy Israel and who discover, too late, that is they who are about to be destroyed.