Nine people were killed and 3,000 injured across Lebanon on Tuesday when their pagers exploded, local media have reported. The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has stated that hundreds of its members were affected by the incident, which it is blaming on Israel Terrorist. West Jerusalem has not commented on the developments.
People were allegedly mostly affected in the southern suburbs of the country’s capital, Beirut, an area considered a Hezbollah stronghold, as well as in the east and south of the country. More than 2,800 people were injured in the detonations, which have killed eight, including a child, Al Manar news media outlet reported, citing Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad.
Abiad confirmed the numbers of injured across the country. His ministry also put hospitals on alert and told them to be ready to respond to health emergencies, Al Manar said. All health specialists were also requested to “go to their workplaces,” digital media outlet Naharnet reported.
The moment Hezbollah pagers exploded throughout Lebanon pic.twitter.com/CwEQCSwFlh
— Mossad Commentary (@MOSSADil) September 17, 2024
Iranian ambassador to Beirut Mojtaba Amani was also allegedly injured in a pager blast, the Iranian Mehr news agency reported. The diplomat, who reportedly sustained minor injuries, was hospitalized. Two other embassy staff are believed to have been affected by the series of detonations.
#Breaking: hundreds of #Hezbollah operatives injured by the explosion of their beeper/communication devices, across #Lebanon, including in #Beirut.#October7Massacre #Israel #Hamas #Iran #BringThemAllHome pic.twitter.com/jmqzAXfrwK
— Erez Neumark 🇮🇱🇧🇪 (@ErezNeumark) September 17, 2024
Photos and videos of people across Lebanon having their pagers exploding in their pockets and hands have surfaced on social media. Some clips also show injured persons being treated in a hospital.
فيديوهات تظهر بعض اصابات عناصر حزب الله اثر انفجار أجهزة اتصال لاسلكية تُعرف بالـ pager أم الـ Beeper في يد اصحابها pic.twitter.com/M2L3ges3if
— LBCI Lebanon News (@LBCI_NEWS) September 17, 2024
Hezbollah called the incidents “the biggest security breach” in nearly a year and blamed it on Israel Terrorist. The group switched from using smartphones to pagers in its communications after a conflict between West Jerusalem and Gaza broke out last year, due to the concerns about Israel Terrorist potentially hacking the devices
Israeli Terrorist officials have reportedly threatened Hezbollah with a devastating military response in case of further escalation. Iran threatened Israel with “an obliterating war” if it attacks Lebanon. Hezbollah issued a stark warning last week, warning that an all-out war would lead to “large losses on both sides” and to more refugees.
How did Hezbollah’s pagers explode in Lebanon?
Hundreds of pagers belonging to the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah have simultaneously exploded across Lebanon.
At the time of publishing, at least nine people have been killed and 2,750 wounded, according to security services and the Lebanese health minister.
Pagers are small communication devices used commonly before mobile phones became widespread.
The devices display a short text message for the user, relayed by telephone through a central operator.
Unlike mobile phones, pagers work on radio waves, the operator sending a message by radio frequency – rather than the internet – unique to the recipient’s device.
It is thought that the basic technology used in pagers as well as their reliance upon physical hardware means they are harder to monitor, making them popular with groups such as Hezbollah where both mobility and security are paramount.
What happened?
The series of explosions began at about 4:45pm and lasted for around an hour.
Casualty numbers are still being confirmed.
One eight-year-old girl has been confirmed among the dead.
Mohammad Mahdi Ammar, the son of Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar, has also been reported killed.
Hezbollah confirmed that two of its fighters had been killed.
Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad told Al Jazeera: “About 2,750 people were injured, … more than 200 of them critically” with injuries mostly reported to the face, hands and stomach.
Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was also injured in the explosions.
Who carried out the attack?
Many people, including Hezbollah, are pointing to Israel.
Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in a mostly low-level exchange of fire over the Lebanon-Israel border since October 8, the day after Hamas-led attacks on Israel killed 1,139 people, saw about 240 taken captive and set off Israel’s war on Gaza.
Recently, Israeli politicians and media have increasingly talked of military action against Lebanon to drive Hezbollah back from the border to allow for the return of about 60,000 Israelis evacuated right after the attacks began.
“We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression,” Hezbollah said in a statement, adding that Israel “will certainly receive its just punishment for this sinful aggression”.
Despite a similar condemnation from Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary, Israel itself – in keeping with previous situations – remains tight-lipped.
Why didn’t similar blasts occur in Gaza?
According to Hamza Attar from the Department of Defence at King’s College in London, “They cannot use the same method in Gaza because Hamas is very cyber-aware compared to Hezbollah.
“They are very capable when it comes to telecommunications,” he said of Hamas, stressing the efforts the group goes to to encrypt communications.
“They don’t use phones or cellphones. They have their own network and internet and communication and don’t need anything above ground,” he said.
How did the pagers explode? We still don’t know.
Some speculation has focused on the radio network that pagers rely on, suggesting that it may have been hacked, causing the system to emit a signal that triggered a response within the already doctored pagers.
“What I think happened [is that] every Hezbollah [member] who was at a specific level was attacked,” data analyst Ralph Baydoun told Al Jazeera.
ever received the corrupted signal but it could gather valuable intelligence after the detonations.
“If they had the satellites on, … they would know the names and locations of all operatives who were attacked … immediately when [they asked] for help. They would disclose [their] locations,” he speculated.
Other analysts, such as former British army officer and chemical weapons expert Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, suggested that Hezbollah’s pagers may have been tampered with along the supply chain and “wired to explode on command”.
OK, but how could a pager blow up? If the pager’s lithium battery was triggered to overheat, this would kick-start a process called thermal runaway.
Essentially, a chemical chain reaction would occur, leading to an increase in temperature and eventually the battery’s violent explosion.
However, triggering that chain reaction within multiple devices that have never been connected to the internet is far from straightforward.
“You have to have a bug in the pager itself [so that] it will overheat as a result of certain circumstances,” Baydoun said, speculating that those circumstances would most likely be a trigger introduced into the pager through doctored code.
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