In February 2024, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned his supporters that their phones were more dangerous than Israeli spies and told them to break, bury or lock them away. His fear was that Israel could track the group's fighters through their phones. Hezbollah turned to pagers instead, and Reuters sources reported it ordered about 5,000 of them from Taiwan's Gold Apollo brand. According to reports, Israel's Mossad had worked its way into that supply chain and hidden explosives inside the devices. On September 17, 2024, thousands of pagers exploded at the same time across Lebanon, and walkie-talkies blew up the next day. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later confirmed that he had approved the operation.

Supporters of Israel call it one of the boldest intelligence operations ever, because Hezbollah's own security measure became its biggest weakness. Nasrallah himself was killed in an Israeli strike only days later. But the attack remains deeply controversial, since dozens of people were killed, including children, and roughly 3,000 were wounded. The UN's human rights chief said that targeting thousands of people through devices without knowing who held them or where they were violated international human rights law, and humanitarian law where it applies. Israeli officials reject the claim that the attack was indiscriminate, saying the pagers were sold only to Hezbollah members and tested so that only the holder would be hurt. The same operation is hailed as a masterstroke by some and condemned as unlawful by others, and that debate is far from settled.