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Israel Lifts Weeks-long Lockdown as Palestinian Killed in Clash

FILE PHOTO: A member of Palestinian security forces gestures as he speaks with a truck occupant at a checkpoint after a state of emergency was extended in response to the coronavirus crisis, in Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank May 5, 2020. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A member of Palestinian security forces gestures as he speaks with a truck occupant at a checkpoint after a state of emergency was extended in response to the coronavirus crisis, in Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank May 5, 2020. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma/File Photo
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Israel Lifts Weeks-long Lockdown as Palestinian Killed in Clash

FILE PHOTO: A member of Palestinian security forces gestures as he speaks with a truck occupant at a checkpoint after a state of emergency was extended in response to the coronavirus crisis, in Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank May 5, 2020. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A member of Palestinian security forces gestures as he speaks with a truck occupant at a checkpoint after a state of emergency was extended in response to the coronavirus crisis, in Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank May 5, 2020. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma/File Photo

The Israeli army on Thursday lifted a weeks-long lockdown on the West Bank city of Nablus, as troops shot dead a Palestinian in clashes elsewhere in the occupied territory, officials said.

"In accordance to a routine situational assessment in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), it has been decided that the general closure that was imposed on the entrances and exits to Nablus will be lifted," a statement from the army said.

A military spokesperson told AFP the lockdown had been lifted at 4:00 am (0200 GMT).

The army had sealed the city on October 11 after Palestinian gunmen of the Lions' Den group, a loose coalition of fighters not aligned with established Palestinian factions, killed an Israeli soldier near the settlement of Shavei Shomron.

The group was behind approximately 20 attacks on Israeli troops and civilians over the past month, according to the army.

The army intensified raids inside the city as Israel pursued Lions' Den members, with an October 25 operation killing five people, including what Israel said was the group's leader.

Reports said other members handed themselves over to Palestinian security forces in recent days.

The sweeping closure of Nablus had restricted travel in and out of the city for around 200,000 Palestinians, disrupting daily life, the local economy and access to medical care and education.

Also Thursday, a man the Palestinian health ministry identified as Daoud Rayyan, 42, was shot dead during a clash with Israeli forces in Beit Duqqu, northwest of Jerusalem.

A spokesman for Israeli border police told AFP that "a terrorist, who was throwing firebombs at our forces, was spotted with a firebomb in his hand and shot dead".

At least 30 Palestinians and three Israelis have been killed in the territories since the start of October, according to an AFP tally.

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Former Israeli Spies Describe Attack Using Exploding Electronic Devices against Lebanon’s Hezbollah

An ambulance rushes wounded people to the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP)
An ambulance rushes wounded people to the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP)
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Former Israeli Spies Describe Attack Using Exploding Electronic Devices against Lebanon’s Hezbollah

An ambulance rushes wounded people to the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP)
An ambulance rushes wounded people to the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP)

Two recently retired senior Israeli intelligence agents shared new details about a deadly clandestine operation years in the making that targeted Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and Syria using exploding pagers and walkie talkies three months ago.
Hezbollah began striking Israel almost immediately after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the Israel-Hamas war, The Associated Press said.
The agents spoke with CBS “60 Minutes” in a segment aired Sunday night. They wore masks and spoke with altered voices to hide their identities.
One agent said the operation started 10 years ago using walkie-talkies laden with hidden explosives, which Hezbollah didn't realize it was buying from Israel, its enemy. The walkie-talkies were not detonated until September, a day after booby-trapped pagers were set off.
“We created a pretend world,” said the officer, who went by the name “Michael.”
Phase two of the plan, using the booby-trapped pagers, kicked in in 2022 after Israel's Mossad intelligence agency learned Hezbollah had been buying pagers from a Taiwan-based company, the second officer said.
The pagers had to be made slightly larger to accommodate the explosives hidden inside. They were tested on dummies multiple times to find the right amount of explosive that would hurt only the Hezbollah fighter and not anyone else in close proximity.
Mossad also tested numerous ring tones to find one that sounded urgent enough to make someone pull the pager out of their pocket.
The second agent, who went by the name “Gabriel,” said it took two weeks to convince Hezbollah to switch to the heftier pager, in part by using false ads on YouTube promoting the devices as dustproof, waterproof, providing a long battery life and more.
He described the use of shell companies, including one based in Hungary, to dupe the Taiwanese firm, Gold Apollo, into unknowingly partnering with the Mossad.
Hezbollah also was unaware it was working with Israel.
Gabriel compared the ruse to a 1998 psychological film about a man who has no clue that he is living in a false world and his family and friends are actors paid to keep up the illusion.
“When they are buying from us, they have zero clue that they are buying from the Mossad,” Gabriel said. “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.”
By September, Hezbollah militants had 5,000 pagers in their pockets.
Israel triggered the attack on Sept. 17, when pagers all over Lebanon started beeping. The devices would explode even if the person failed to push the buttons to read an incoming encrypted message.
The next day, Mossad activated the walkie-talkies, some of which exploded at funerals for some of the approximately 30 people who were killed in the pager attacks.
Gabriel said the goal was more about sending a message than actually killing Hezbollah fighters.
“If he just died, so he’s dead. But if he’s wounded, you have to take him to the hospital, take care of him. You need to invest money and efforts,” he said. “And those people without hands and eyes are living proof, walking in Lebanon, of ‘don’t mess with us.’ They are walking proof of our superiority all around the Middle East.”
In the days after the attack, Israel's air force hit targets across Lebanon, killing thousands. Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was assassinated when Israel dropped bombs on his bunker.
By November, the war between Israel and Hezbollah, a byproduct of the deadly attack by Hamas group in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, ended with a ceasefire. More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas militants, health officials have said.
The agent using the name “Michael” said that the day after the pager explosions, people in Lebanon were afraid to turn on their air conditioners out of fear that they would explode, too.
“There is real fear,” he said.
Asked if that was intentional, he said, “We want them to feel vulnerable, which they are. We can’t use the pagers again because we already did that. We’ve already moved on to the next thing. And they’ll have to keep on trying to guess what the next thing is.”