Israel gets support from Chief Of Army Staff Gen Upendra Dwivedi

On Tuesday, Indian Army Chief Gen Upendra Dwivedi lauded the Israeli strategy amid its ongoing Military offensive against Islamic terror group Hezbollah. He appreciated the strategy of involving a shell company created to supply pagers to Hezbollah, describing it as a “masterstroke” by the Israelis. He emphasized that such a maneuver necessitates years of preparation, indicating the level of readiness on Israel’s part.

“The pager that you’re talking about, it’s a Taiwan company being supplied to a Hungarian company. The Hungarian company thereafter giving it to them. The shell company that had been created is something that is a masterstroke by the Israelis. And for that, it requires years and years of preparation. So it means they were prepared for it,” he said during the Chanakya Defence Dialogue.

Dwivedi noted that warfare begins long before any actual fighting starts; it commences with planning. “And this is what is most important,” he said when discussing how Israel repurposed pagers into bombs and India’s strategies to address similar threats. He highlighted the necessity for vigilance regarding supply chain interruptions and interceptions. “We have to have various levels of inspection, whether it is at the technological level as well as manual level to make sure such things do not get repeated in our case,” he added.

Last month, a significant incident occurred when 3,000 pagers used by the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah exploded after a coded message was sent, resulting in nine deaths and thousands of injuries. It was later revealed that Israel’s Mossad had embedded explosives within 5,000 Taiwan-made pagers ordered by Hezbollah.

Reuters reported that this operation had been in the works for several months. Hezbollah had turned to these pagers to evade Israeli tracking, but Mossad had altered the devices “at the production level.” A source explained, “The Mossad injected a board inside the device that has explosive material that receives a code. It’s very hard to detect it through any means.”

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah had mandated the use of pagers due to concerns over Israeli surveillance. Following this decision, Israel launched a plan to create a shell company that would disguise itself as an international pager manufacturer, as reported by The New York Times.

The need for Israel to garner support from India is particularly crucial, especially given the international sentiment often critical of Israel. Support from India, home to the world’s second-largest army, is significant. Gen Dwivedi’s acknowledgment of Israel’s strategy reflects a strong endorsement that could influence India’s military and diplomatic posture, enhancing bilateral ties in the face of shared security concerns.