Shell firm Israel created to supply pagers to Hezbollah masterstroke: army chief
Israel is believed to have carried out the deadly attacks against Iran-backed Hezbollah by concealing explosives inside the pager batteries that killed scores of people
Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi on Tuesday said the setting up of a shell company by Israel and the role it played in targeting Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon was a “masterstroke” by the Israelis.
“If you talk about the pagers, it is a Taiwan company, supplying to Hungarian company and thereafter giving it to them [Iran-backed Hezbollah operatives]. The shell company which has been created is something which is a masterstroke by Israelis. And for that it requires years and years of preparation. War does not start the day you start fighting, it starts the day you start planning,” he said at the Chanakya Defence Dialogue 2024 organised by the Indian Army in collaboration with the think tank Centre for Land Warfare Studies.
Israel is believed to have carried out the deadly attack by concealing explosives inside the pager batteries. Hezbollah ordered more than 5,000 pagers months before the attack that killed scores of people and left thousands wounded.
“Israeli saying is mow the grass so that for some time thereafter at least there is rest. It will come up again and we will take care of it. And that is what they have been doing. But this time they have done something different,” Dwivedi said.
Supply chain interruption and interception is something India must be watchful about, he said. “We must have various levels of inspection at the technological and manual levels.”