Hundreds of pagers explode in Lebanon

The scenes are reminiscent of science fiction: suddenly hundreds of radio receivers explode at the same time in several places in Lebanon. Thousands are injured. A second wave follows the next day.

Hundreds of small so-called pagers explode simultaneously in Lebanon. Almost 2,800 people are injured. Among the injured are many members of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, but also civilians. At least twelve people are killed, including two children. Some victims had to have their arms or fingers removed as a result of serious injuries. The Shiite organization blames Israel for the allegedly coordinated attack. A day later, a second wave followed, electronic devices exploded again, this time leaving 20 dead and more than 450 injured. The most important questions and answers:

The Shiite organization Hezbollah was founded in 1982 with Iranian support in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon's civil war. Since then she has been fighting politically, but also violently, against Israel. Hezbollah is also represented in the Lebanese parliament. It is now seen as an influential political force in a country with a generally weak and consistently corrupt state. It is also a social service provider and runs its own hospitals and schools, among other things. Its power is based, among other things, on its own militia, with which it controls entire areas, including the region on the border with Israel.

Hezbollah's declared goal is resistance against the arch-enemy Israel. Since the beginning of the Gaza war almost a year ago, she says she has been acting in solidarity with the Islamist Hamas in the contested coastal strip. Both belong to Iran's so-called “Axis of Resistance” – an alliance against the common enemy Israel. Hezbollah – similar to other militias of the resistance axis – only wants to stop its attacks against Israel when the “aggressions against Gaza and the Palestinian people” are stopped. In return, Israel repeatedly attacks targets in Lebanon.

Israel wants to use military and diplomatic pressure to ensure that the Hezbollah militia retreats behind the Litani River, 30 kilometers from the border – as stipulated by UN Resolution 1701.

The small radio receivers known as pagers bore the Apollo company logo. The Taiwan-based company has denied any connection to the incident. When asked, Gold Apollo explained that a company based in Hungary designed and manufactured the devices. She denies this. According to security circles, many of the pagers came from a shipment that recently arrived in Lebanon. The New York Times reported, citing government officials, that Israeli agents had previously intercepted the devices and equipped them with small amounts of explosives and a code. The devices were then used to explode using this code.

Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and his supporters have long feared that the use of smartphones could be used by the Israeli military or secret services and thus become an easy target. They have been using small pagers to communicate for years because they are more difficult to locate. However, they have other weak points. On the second day, it was said that classic radio devices such as walkie-talkies were used, Hezbollah circles said. At first little was known about it.

Hezbollah and its main ally Iran, as well as the Lebanese government, blame Israel for the allegedly coordinated attack. Israel has not yet made any official statement. However, such a technically sophisticated attack bears the hallmarks of Israel's secret services, which have carried out similarly complex attacks several times to kill high-ranking enemies.

In 1996, Hamas military chief and bomb maker Jihia Ayash was killed by explosives in his cell phone, detonated by a remote call. As far as we know, Israel was the first country to use a communication device for an assassination attempt, wrote Israeli intelligence expert Ronen Bergman. In the case of the killing of Hezbollah military commander Fuad Schukr or Hamas foreign chief Ismail Haniya in Tehran, which was attributed to Israel, communication tools may also have been crucial in determining the location of the victims.

Since the beginning of the Gaza war, Israel's army and Hezbollah have repeatedly exchanged heavy fire. With this attack, which experts describe as unprecedented, Israel can once again demonstrate its technical superiority over Hezbollah. If the militia were to respond to Israel with large rocket fire, it would only prove that it is not capable of such a sophisticated attack. Former CIA officer Robert Baer told CNN the attack was “devastating for Hezbollah” while showcasing Israel's exceptional technical and intelligence capabilities.