Tuesday’s simultaneous detonation of pagers used by Hezbollah members across Lebanon resulted in at least nine fatalities—including an eight-year-old girl—and approximately 3,000 injuries.
Around 3:30 p.m., explosions started in the terrorist group’s strongholds, the eastern Bekaa Valley and the southern Beirut districts known as Dahiyeh.
In a statement, Iran-backed Hezbollah accused Israel of being behind the fatal bombings. “We fully hold the Israeli enemy accountable for this criminal aggression that also targeted civilians,” Hezbollah declared, assuring the Israeli government that it will “certainly receive its due punishment.”
Following the operation’s conclusion on Tuesday, Israel briefed Washington, DC, on the operation, an unnamed US official told the Associated Press. The official was not permitted to discuss the material publicly, so they talked on condition of anonymity.
How was the assault executed?
5,000 pagers that Hezbollah had imported months prior had explosives hidden inside of them, according to a senior Lebanese security source who spoke with news agency Reuters.
The pagers came from Gold Apollo, a Taiwanese manufacturer, although the latter denied making the gadgets. They are authorised to use the brand name of a European company. The Lebanese source informed Reuters that Mossad had altered the devices “at the production level.”
“Inside the device, the Mossad inserted a board containing explosive material that is coded. It isn’t easy to find using any method. Even with a scanner or other gadget,” the insider stated.
He said that when a coded message was given to them, the explosives detonated simultaneously with 3,000 pagers.
Hezbollah still uses pagers; why?
The leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, had already issued a warning to his followers not to carry cell phones because Israel may monitor their whereabouts.
Due to this, the militant group that Iran sponsors now uses pagers for communication.
In contrast to pagers’ more straightforward technology, cellphones are more likely to have conversations intercepted, according to Nicholas Reese, adjunct instructor at the Centre for Global Affairs in New York University’s School of Professional Studies, who made this statement to the Associated Press.
According to Reese, Hezbollah must alter its communication tactics in response to Tuesday’s strike.
He went on to say that those who survived the bombings on Tuesday are probably going to discard “not just their phones, but their pagers, and leaving their tablets or any other electronic devices.”
