One Hezbollah Militant Dies As A Result Of A Radio Explosion, Israel's 8200 Unit Becomes A Spotlight Amid Pager Attacks

JAKARTA - The pager attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon has caught the attention of Unit 8200. The Israeli Defense Forces intelligence unit, according to Western security sources, was involved in planning the operation.

Israeli officials remain silent over the bold intelligence operation that killed 12 people on Tuesday, September 17 and injured thousands of Hezbollah members.

It was reported that one person was killed on Wednesday, September 18, when the handheld radio used by Hezbollah was detonated. A senior Lebanese security source and another source told Israel's spy agency Reuters, Mossad, was responsible for advanced operations to plant a small amount of explosives inside the 5,000 pager ordered by Hezbollah.

One Western security source told Reuters, Unit 8200, a military unit that is not part of a spy agency, was involved in the development stage of operations against Hezbollah which has been going on for more than a year.

The source said Unit 8200 was involved in the technical side of testing how they were able to put explosives into the manufacturing process.

The Israeli military declined to comment. Meanwhile, the office of the prime minister who oversaw Mossad did not immediately respond to this matter.

Yossi Kuperwasser, a former military intelligence official and now a research director at Israel's Defense and Security Forum, said there had been no confirmation that military intelligence units were involved in the attack.

But he said members of 8200 were some of the best and brightest personnel in the Israeli military, who served in units at the center of Israel's defense capabilities.

"The challenges they face are huge, very demanding, and we need the best people involved in that," he said.

The unit and the youth forces are chosen to develop and operate intelligence gathering tools and are often equated with the US National Security Agency.