The Lebanese armed group Hezbollah has blamed Israel for a coordinated explosion of pagers in Lebanon. A mass of such devices exploded on Tuesday, killing at least nine people and wounding more than 2,800. Hezbollah members were among the victims. Physical attacks on electronic equipment are very rare, requiring large resources and preparation, the British broadcaster BBC reported, citing experts.
For about 40 minutes, mainly in the areas Lebanon considered strongholds of Hezbollah – in the Bekaa Valley, on the outskirts of Beirut and in the south of the country – a series of pager explosions took place – the AP agency reported. Among the injured is the ambassador Iran in Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani – added the Mehr agency. In Syriawhere explosions also occurred, 14 people were injured.
The pagers that exploded were bought by Hezbollah in recent months after it switched to cellphone communications to protect against Israeli surveillance.
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As reported by the I24 portal, the exploding model turned out to be the one produced Taiwan Gold Apollo AR-924. Although many issues are still unclear – the portal emphasized – videos posted on social media channels showing moments of pager explosions “seem to indicate a different nature than explosions occurring in the case of overheated batteries. The question remains what exactly happened and at what stage could the interference with the pagers have occurred: during production, transport or storage of the devices.”
BBC: Pagers may have contained small explosive devices
The devices were likely to have been loaded with 10-20g of military-grade explosives, which were then remotely activated, an expert who previously served in the British army told the BBC, requesting anonymity.
“This is unprecedented. Hezbollah prides itself on its advanced security measures, honed over decades of fighting Israel. An attack of this scale not only causes casualties and damage, but also undermines the entire security system of the organization,” the former analyst added in an interview with the BBC. CIA Emily Harding.
Pager explosions in LebanonWAEL HAMZEH/PAP/EPA
“This attack shows how deeply Israel has infiltrated Hezbollah's communications networks, allowing it to paralyze the group's operations through intelligence operations without the need for a ground operation,” Lina Khatib, director of the Middle East Institute at the University of London, wrote on social media.
Cyberattacks are becoming increasingly important in modern conflicts, but are usually limited to attacks on software, with attacks targeting hardware itself being very rare, the BBC commented. It added that such operations require large resources and access to facilities, such as in a factory.
'The biggest security breach' since the beginning of the war with Israel
According to our findings, Israel bears “full responsibility” for this “criminal attack, which also affected civilians,” Hezbollah said in a statement. It added that the response to the attack would come “both from directions the enemy expects” and from those for which it is not prepared.
Israeli authorities did not comment on the accusations by Hezbollah and the Lebanese government, which described the attack as “Israeli aggression.”
A Hezbollah official said the mass detonation of pagers was the “biggest security breach” the Lebanese terror group has experienced in nearly a year of war with Israel.
Since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023, Iranian-backed Hezbollah has regularly shelled northern Israel, which has been met with counterattacks.
Mutual shelling has led to the evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians from both sides of the border. Since the fall, air raids on Lebanon have killed more than 600 people, mostly members of Hezbollah, and dozens of civilians and soldiers have lost their lives in the group's attacks on Israel.
In recent days, the situation between Israel and Hezbollah has become even more tense. The media speculate that the Israeli authorities may decide to launch a ground operation in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah, considered a terrorist organization by the West, is the largest political force in Lebanon. It also has significant military potential, and is considered the world's strongest non-state army. Hezbollah, which declares its desire to destroy Israel, has been fighting regular skirmishes with that state for decades, which in 2006 turned into open war.
Main image source: WAEL HAMZEH/PAP/EPA