Pager attack puts the spotlight on Israel's secretive Unit 8200

The mass pager attack against Hezbollah in Lebanon has turned the spotlight on Israel's secretive Unit 8200, the Israel Defence Forces' intelligence unit, which a Western security source said was involved in planning the operation.

Israeli officials have remained silent on the audacious intelligence operation that killed 12 people on Sept 17 and wounded thousands of Hezbollah operatives. At least 20 people were killed on Sept 18 when handheld radios used by Hezbollah also detonated, Lebanon's Health Ministry said.

A senior Lebanese security source and another source told Reuters that Israel's Mossad spy agency was responsible for a sophisticated operation to plant a small quantity of explosives inside 5,000 pagers ordered by Hezbollah.

One Western security source said Unit 8200, a military unit that is not part of the spy agency, was involved in the development stage of the operation against Hezbollah, which was over a year in the making.

The source said Unit 8200 was involved in the technical side of testing how they could insert explosive material within the manufacturing process.