I must actually revoke my statement,it seems like it is now being revived and is developed again, at a much slower pace,though.
But much better than nothing and at least security updates seem to be working.
Sorry for the misinformation, my bad, the different sources are quite misleading sometimes.
It’s not that new, actually.
Mossad killed Mahmoud Hamshari, a leader of the terrorist cell that kidnapped and killed Israeli athletes during the Munich Olympics with a bomb in his (non mobile) phone. They called him, confirmed he was on the phone and blew him up.
Yahya Ayyash the chief bomb maker of the Hamas was also killed by an exploding mobile phone in 1996.
The size of the operation here is truly impressive,but it’s hardly new - and nothing another bad faith state level actor couldn’t do. There is a good reason proper governments control incoming shipments of communication devices for their officials and security services very closely.