Masterstroke by Israel: Indian Army chief on Lebanon pager blast operation

Last month, multiple explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies of Hezbollah members in Lebanon killed nearly 40 and left over 3,000 injured.

In Short

• Army Chief says pager operation required years and years of preparation by Israel
• Says India needs to be watchful of supply chain interruptions
• Multiple explosions of pagers, walkie-talkies left 40 Hezbollah members dead

Indian Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi said the move by Israel to set up a shell company that manufactured the "explosive pagers" sent to Lebanon in order to derail the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group was a "masterstroke". Speaking at the Chanakya Defence Dialogues, the Army Chief said the move required years and years of preparation by Israel.

"The war does not start the day you start fighting, it starts the day you start planning," General Dwivedi said.

Israel has now shifted its military focus from the Gaza Strip to its northern border with Lebanon, where it has targeted Hezbollah and bumped off its chief Hassan Nasrallah and several top commanders.

"Israel has done something different. Israel had decided that Hamas was their primary target. So, Israel first wiped out Hamas and then focused on the other side (Hezbollah). The shell company that was created for the pagers was something of a masterstroke by Israel," he said.

Last month, multiple explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies of Hezbollah members in Lebanon killed nearly 40 and left over 3,000 injured. Three Israeli intelligence officers told the New York Times that the company that manufactured the pagers was a shell firm set up by Mossad to rig the devices at the source before shipping them to Lebanon.

Experts called the move a "supply chain attack", which involves infiltrating a supplier and placing a small amount of explosives inside devices.

Asserting the need for various levels of inspection at the technological level, General Dwivedi said India needed to be "watchful" of supply chain interruptions.

"Supply chain interruption, interception is something we have to be very watchful of. We need to have various levels of inspection at the technological level as well as the manual level to make sure such things do not get repeated in our case," the Army chief said.