Intelligence experts: Israeli spy in Hezbollah? – News

The virtually simultaneous explosions of hundreds of pagers on Tuesday and radios used by Hezbollah members in Lebanon on Wednesday are causing a worldwide stir.

It was quickly suspected that Israel was behind the attacks. “The message is clear: even physical proximity to Hezbollah people can be dangerous,” says SRF Middle East correspondent Thomas Gutersohn. “Israel has been spreading this message in Lebanon for months.”

It was a potent actor

One thing is certain: there must be a powerful actor behind the complex attack that was planned and prepared for a long time – thousands of pagers were prepared with explosives and a trigger.

The intelligence expert Erich Schmidt-Eenboom speaks of “a brilliant operational idea”, presumably from the Israeli secret service. Schmidt-Eenboom heads the Weilheim Institute for Peace Policy and has written several books about the work of the secret services.

For intelligence expert Aviva Guttmann, in contrast to Schmidt-Eenboom, one thing is certain: “Israel had a spy in the ranks of Hezbollah.”

He must have known who the prepared pagers would be sent to so that innocent victims could be avoided as far as possible. “On a technological level, too, it was necessary to ensure that the pagers really exploded when the corresponding signal was given,” says the Basel native, who works in the area of ​​strategy and intelligence research at the University of Aberystwyth in Wales.

Israel's secret service reports back

With the attack, Israel is showing that its secret service is still powerful even after the failure on October 7 – when Hamas terrorists from the Gaza Strip attacked Israel, killed around 1,200 people and abducted more than 200 to the Gaza Strip – says Guttmann.

“That is one of the messages that Israel wanted to send with the pager attack.” The Hezbollah people should be shown that they are safer nowhere else.

Can secret services do anything?

Given the enormous number of casualties in Lebanon, a country that has been economically on the brink of collapse for years, the question also arises as to whether there are no red lines that apply to the actions of the secret services.

It turns out – it depends on who you ask: For Schmidt-Eenboom, there is no such thing – at least not for the intelligence services of the most powerful countries. And he gives examples: “Under President Obama, the USA carried out over 500 missile attacks using drones, in which dozens of innocent people died.” And Russia is carrying out one contract killing after another in Europe.”

Intelligence expert Guttmann sees things a little differently – and refers to the position of researchers who postulate that similar rules should apply to intelligence services as in international humanitarian law. However, the special thing about intelligence services is that they operate in secret and do not have to abide by laws.

Some intelligence chiefs have admitted to having a personal moral limit, says Guttmann: namely when an attack is discovered. But: “When it comes to attacks that you can assume no one will find out about, very ethical, very questionable actions are possible.”