Israeli spies have a long history of using telephones and their technological successors for tracking, surveillance, and even assassinations. In 1972, Mossad operatives replaced the base of the phone used by Mahmoud Hamshari, the PLO’s representative in Paris. When Hamshari answered the phone, explosives hidden inside the replica base were detonated remotely by an Israeli team. He lost a leg and later died. Another instance occurred in 1996 when Israel’s internal security agency tricked Yahya Ayyash, a Hamas bombmaker responsible for killing Israelis, into accepting a call on a Motorola Alpha cell phone containing explosives.
These cases are considered successful examples among former intelligence officials because they allowed for monitoring and surveilling targets before assassinations, confirming target identities during assassinations, and using small explosive charges that only killed specific individuals.
Recently in Lebanon, hundreds of pagers exploded simultaneously. Many suspect Israel as being responsible due to its sophisticated spy network capable of carrying out such coordinated attacks. Hizbollah blamed Israel for the explosions that killed at least 12 people and injured thousands.
Hizbollah had turned to pagers to avoid Israeli surveillance after its leader urged operatives to stop using smartphones during increased attacks from Israel over several months. Pagers were chosen because they lack GPS capabilities, microphones or cameras, making them harder to hack compare
