New Documentary Explores Israel’s Operation Against Hezbollah
A new documentary is diving into Israel’s extensive operation aimed at infiltrating Hezbollah’s communications network and using the group’s own pagers against them. Titled Paging Hezbollah and directed by Justin Folk, the film recounts the remarkable operation that took place in September 2024, featuring insights from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as senior intelligence personnel from both Israeli and American backgrounds.
The first teaser for the film was released on Thursday, providing a peek into the intricate planning, engineering, and deception involved in placing compromised communication devices into the hands of Hezbollah operatives across Lebanon.
In the trailer, Netanyahu states, “A handful of TNT changed the world.”
Former CIA Director General David Petraeus, who features in the film, characterizes the operation as a “modern-day Trojan horse.”
The documentary includes interviews with several key figures, including Mossad Director David Barnea, former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren, and former Israeli National Security Council chief Yaakov Nagel, along with other experts on Hezbollah.
The teaser debuted on the same day Netanyahu referenced the operation during a speech to world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. He notably held up a pager while addressing the audience, quipping, “Remember the pagers? Hezbollah sure does.”
The operation came to public attention on September 17, 2024, when numerous pagers utilized by Hezbollah members began detonating almost simultaneously throughout Lebanon and parts of Syria. This was shortly followed by a second wave of explosions involving handheld radios used by the group.
After a warning from their leader Hassan Nasrallah about the risks of cellphone surveillance, Hezbollah had increasingly opted for pagers and similar low-tech communication devices. Ironically, this choice became a significant vulnerability for them.
This coordinated attack was the culmination of a meticulously planned intelligence operation developed over several years. Israel had worked to create compromised devices and integrate them into Hezbollah’s communications while convincing the organization of their security.
The filmmakers explain that Paging Hezbollah goes beyond the initial explosions to detail how the devices were cleverly engineered, marketed, and smuggled in without Hezbollah’s knowledge, tracing the operation from its inception to activation.
According to Folk, “Many people heard about the pager operation and wondered how it was even possible. We wanted to tell the actual inside story — years of patience, engineering, deception, and tradecraft that seem more like fiction than fact.” He added that as they dug deeper into the story, its impressive reality became even more evident.
The pager attacks marked the beginning of a significant campaign against Hezbollah’s leadership and military framework. Within ten days of the explosions, Israel killed Nasrallah in an airstrike on the group’s underground headquarters in Beirut, along with other senior officials. Following this, Israel initiated a ground operation in southern Lebanon, aiming to push Hezbollah away from its northern border and to permit tens of thousands of displaced Israelis to return home.
The documentary also places this operation in the context of the broader conflict triggered by the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Alongside insights from intelligence officials, the 93-minute film features testimonies from survivors of the October 7 attack and the sister of a victim from a July 2024 rocket strike on the Druze town of Majdal Shams.
Near the film’s conclusion, Netanyahu frames Israel’s battle against Hezbollah and other Iran-backed factions as part of a larger struggle. “The test of Western civilization is now, in Israel,” he remarks. “Because Israel is fighting the forces that will destroy Western civilization and Western freedom.”
Paging Hezbollah is set to release in theaters nationwide on October 30.
