Attention Turns to Israel's Cyber Warfare Unit 8200 After Hezbollah Pager Attack

The Israel Defense Forces’ intelligence unit, Unit 8200, has gained attention due to the mass pager strike on Hezbollah in Lebanon.

According to a Western security source, Unit 8200 was engaged in the operation’s planning.

Israeli officials have remained silent on the audacious intelligence operation that killed 12 people on Tuesday and wounded thousands of Hezbollah operatives. At least one person was killed on Wednesday when hand-held radios used by Hezbollah detonated.

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 told Reuters that 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.

The Israeli military declined to comment. The prime minister’s office that has oversight of Mossad did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Yossi Kuperwasser, a former military intelligence official and now research director at the Israel Defense and Security Forum, said there was no confirmation that the military intelligence unit was involved in the attack.

But he said 8200’s members were some of the best and brightest personnel in the Israeli military, serving in a unit at the centre of Israel’s defence capabilities.

“The challenges they are facing are immense, very demanding, and we need the best people to get involved in that,” he said.

The unit – and its legion of young, hand-picked soldiers – develops and operates intelligence gathering tools and is often likened to the U.S. National Security Agency.

(Reuters)