The Times of Israel reports: “The signal that detonated thousands of Hezbollah pagers last month was an encrypted message that required users to hold the devices with both hands, maximizing the chances of causing debilitating injuries, sources said in a Saturday report…

Israeli, US, and Middle Eastern officials estimate that up to 3,000 Hezbollah members were killed or injured by the pagers, as well as an unknown number of civilians, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.

The Post report — which cited Israeli, Arab, and American security officials, politicians and diplomats, as well as Lebanese sources close to Hezbollah, all of them anonymous — said the pagers were made in Israel and conceived by the Mossad spy agency.

After Mossad officials revealed the capability to elected officials on September 12 and the operation was allegedly okayed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, thousands of Hezbollah operatives got a message telling them they had received an encrypted message that required pressing two buttons — effectively forcing them to use both hands, and to be injured in both hands when the blasts occurred as they pushed the buttons…”