In an extraordinary 60 Minutes broadcast Sunday, former Mossad agents pulled back the curtain on one of Israel's most sophisticated covert operations, revealing how thousands of doctored pagers and walkie-talkies distributed to the Iran-backed Hezbollah exploded across Lebanon this September.

According to the CBS News report, the intelligence agency spent a decade infiltrating Hezbollah's supply chain with weaponized communication devices that ultimately helped turn the tide of war in Lebanon. In a devastating moment for the organization's leadership, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah was reportedly forced to witness the deaths of his own security detail inside his bunker as their compromised communication devices detonated.

Speaking through masks and using pseudonyms, two retired senior agents described to CBS correspondent Lesley Stahl how they transformed ordinary walkie-talkies and pagers into precision weapons that detonated across Lebanon this September.

"A walkie-talkie was a weapon just like a bullet or a missile or a mortar," explained the agent identified as Michael, describing the operation's first phase. When Stahl pressed for details about the device's construction, Michael revealed that "inside the battery, there is an explosive device," which was "made in Israel" at a Mossad facility.

The ingenuity of the operation lay not just in the technical execution but in the elaborate deception campaign that accompanied it. Through a network of shell companies and fake business entities, Mossad managed to sell more than 16,000 explosive-laden walkie-talkies to Hezbollah over several years, 60 Minutes reported.

By 2022, emboldened by the success of the walkie-talkie operation, Mossad expanded its strategy to include weaponized pagers. However, the transition wasn't smooth. "I remember the day that I came to our director, put it on the table. And he was furious," recalled the second agent, identified as Gabriel. "He was telling us, 'There is no chance that anyone will buy such a big device. It's not comfortable in their pocket. It's heavy.'"

Despite initial skepticism, Gabriel spent two weeks convincing Mossad leadership that the pager's apparent drawbacks could be turned into selling points. The agency launched a sophisticated marketing campaign, creating fake YouTube advertisements that promoted the devices as premium products.

"We make advertising movies and brochures, and we put it on internet. And it became the best product in the pager area in the world," Gabriel told Stahl. The marketing was so effective that Mossad had to field purchase requests from legitimate customers, which they deflected by quoting exorbitant prices.

The operation's success hinged on maintaining an impenetrable facade of legitimacy. Mossad established a partnership with Gold Apollo, a Taiwanese pager manufacturer, through front companies. "When they are buying from us, they have zero clue that they are buying from the Mossad," Gabriel explained. "We make like 'Truman Show,' everything is controlled by us behind the scene. In their experience, everything is normal. Everything was 100% kosher including businessman, marketing, engineers, showroom, everything."

The technical sophistication of the operation extended to the devices' design. Each pager underwent extensive testing to ensure precise effects. "We test everything, triple, double, multiple times in order to make sure there is minimum damage," Gabriel said. The agency even conducted research on average response times to pager alerts – approximately seven seconds – and engineered specific ringtones to maximize user engagement.

When Stahl inquired about the detonation mechanism, Gabriel revealed the deadly efficiency of the design. Users received messages claiming to contain encrypted information that required pressing two buttons to access. However, as Gabriel explained, "It's the same effect. It gonna explode anyway." The final detonation signals were triggered from Israel.

On Sept. 17, at precisely 3:30 p.m., thousands of pagers began beeping across Lebanon. The following day, the decade-old walkie-talkies were activated, some detonating at funerals for victims of the pager attacks. The precision of the devices was evident in videos reviewed by 60 Minutes, showing explosions that wounded pager carriers while leaving nearby individuals unharmed.

"A day after the pagers exploded, people were afraid to turn on the air conditioners in Lebanon because they were afraid that they would explode," Michael told Stahl, describing the psychological impact of the operation. "So there was real fear."

The aftermath of the attacks demonstrated their strategic effectiveness. According to Gabriel, the operation wasn't primarily about inflicting casualties. "If he's just dead, so he's dead," he explained. "But if he [is] wounded, you have to take him to the hospital, take care of him. You need to invest money and effort. And those people without hands and eyes are living proof, walking in Lebanon, of 'don't mess with us.'"

The combined attacks resulted in approximately 30 fatalities, including two chi

ldren, and wounded around 3,000 people. In the aftermath, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah delivered what former agents described as an uncharacteristically subdued speech, before being killed in an Israeli airstrike on his bunker on Sept. 27. A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect at the end of November.

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Several original cast members are set to return for season 2 of the Frasier reboot, including Harriet Sansom Harris as Bebe Glazer, Peri Gilpin as Roz Doyle, Dan Butler as Bob 'Bulldog' Briscoe, and Edward Hibbert as Gil Chesterton.

Rachel Bloom will guest star as Phoebe Glazer, Bebe's charming and luxury-loving daughter.

Kelsey Grammer's daughter, Greer Grammer, will play Alice, Roz's outgoing daughter.

New characters such as Freddy Crane (Frasier and Lilith's son), Nicholas Lyndhurst as Alan (Frasier's college buddy), and Toks Olagundoye as Olivia (Alan's colleague) will be introduced.

Additional new faces joining the revival include Amy Sedaris, Patricia Heaton, and Yvette Nicole Brown.

Season 2 is currently in production in Los Angeles, with James Burrows directing two episodes. The series is produced by CBS Studios in association with Grammer's production company.

Sources: Yahoo News, Gamereactor, Screen Rant, TV Overmind, Nerdbot, Actual News Magazine, Cracked, Castanet, Mirror, Broadway World, Express Digest, Daily Mail, JoBlo, Variety.

This article was written in collaboration with Generative AI news company Alchemiq.

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Israel is far from ending the war against the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip, an unnamed United States official told CBS News Friday.

"The Israelis haven't come close to achieving their objective of destroying Hamas," the official said, adding that hundreds of terrorists and miles of unexplored tunnels remain, and Hamas Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar remains at large.

According to the source, since Israel has no "day after" plan, the current strategy is "a recipe for continuous war."

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Thursday night with National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer.

Blinken reiterated Washington's commitment to Israeli security and discussed ongoing efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and ensure the release of all hostages.

The secretary of state emphasized the need to take additional steps to increase humanitarian aid to Gaza and to plan for governance, security, and reconstruction after the war. He also stressed the importance of avoiding further escalation in Lebanon and reaching a diplomatic decision that allows Israeli and Lebanese evacuees to return to their homes.

The meeting between Hanegbi, Dermer, and Blinken took place against the backdrop of the heightened tensions between Washington and Jerusalem after White House spokesman John Kirby called a video released by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he accused the US of withholding specific weapons, "perplexing" and "disappointing."  Subsequently, Netanyahu tweeted on X, "I am willing to absorb personal attacks if that is what it takes for Israel to get the arms and ammunition it needs in its war for survival."

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The full atlas is available on the bureau's website here.

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CBS Studios is developing an American adaptation of the popular Netflix-distributed Israeli drama "Shtisel," the network announced this week.

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The American remake will be written by "Insatiable" creator and "Dexter" writer Lauren Gussis, and directed by Oscar-winner Kenneth Lonergan, reported Deadline.

The publication said the show is being described as a modern take on "Romeo and Juliet" and will center on an "ultra-progressive, over-achieving secular 18-year-old young woman on the verge of personal freedom, and the strictly observant Orthodox young man to whom she is powerfully drawn – so powerfully that she is willing to uproot her entire life to be with him."

The remake will reportedly be shopped around soon to potential buyers. Fremantle is the co-studio.

The "Shtisel" adaptation will be a TV directing debut for Lonergan, who has so far only directed features that he wrote himself. The "Manchester by the Sea" filmmaker was drawn to the storyline, and after many conversations with Gussis and several rabbis, joined the project, according to Deadline.

CBS Studios has recently amped up its investment in international local production, developing and producing new shows in Germany, Israel and the Netherlands.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org

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According to the report, EU countries accounted for 41% of imports, whereas 14% of imports were of US origin. Imports from Asia accounted for 23% and 22% were from the rest of the world.

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Israel's trade deficit stood at 7.2 billion shekels ($2 billion) for that period, the report said.

For the period of January to May 2019, Israel's trade deficit stood at 8.6 billion shekels ($2.4 billion), compared to 3.2 billion shekels ($890 million) in the comparable period in 2018.

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One person was injured in the attacks, and experts are still collecting debris to determine whether projectiles,  naval mines or improvised explosive devices were used.

"It is the assessment of the United States government that the Islamic Republic of Iran is responsible for the attacks that occurred in the Gulf of Oman today," Mike Pompeo told reporters without providing explicit evidence.

"This assessment is based on intelligence, the weapons used, the level of expertise needed to execute the operation, recent similar Iranian attacks on shipping, and the fact that no proxy group operating in the area has the resources and proficiency to act with such a high degree of sophistication," Pompeo said.

Pompeo said the assessment was also based on recent incidents in the region that the US also blamed on Iran, including the use of limpet mines to attack four oil tankers off the nearby Emirati port of Fujairah and the bombing of an oil pipeline in Saudi Arabia by Iranian-backed fighters in May.

"Taken as a whole these unprovoked attacks present a clear threat to international peace and security, a blatant assault on the freedom of navigation and an unacceptable campaign of escalating tension by Iran," Pompeo added.

At the United Nations, the United States asked for closed Security Council consultations on the tanker incidents later Thursday.

Earlier on Thursday, a US official told CBS News that it was "highly likely" that Iran was behind the latest attacks.

Thursday's attacks on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman were the second in a month near the Strait of Hormuz, a major strategic waterway for world oil supplies.

The official further said that a US retaliation depended on what emerged from the investigation into the incident following the debris collection and whether it could prove a link to Iran.

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