Shell firm Israel created to supply pagers to Hezbollah masterstroke: army chief

Indian Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi on Tuesday termed the move by Israel to set up shell companies to manufacture pagers and walkie-talkies planted with explosives as a "masterstroke". The explosives-laden communication devices were being used by Hezbollah members which exploded last month killing nearly 40 people including children and injuring over 3,000 people.

The Iran-backed militant group had blamed Israel for the attack, though Israel neither confirmed nor denied the attacks. According to a New York Times report quoting three Israeli intelligence officers, the country's intelligence agency, Mossad had set up a shell company that manufactured the pagers, laced with a few grams of explosives before delivering them to Hezbollah.

Experts coined the term "supply chain attacks" for the move, implying infiltrating a supplier and placing a small amount of explosives inside devices.