Pager explosions in Lebanon: How attack was planned over 6 months ago

Simultaneous pager explosions in Lebanon on Tuesday killed at least nine people and injured 2,700. These devices were being used by the militant group Hezbollah, which blamed Israel for the attack

At least nine people, including a minor, died and thousands were injured after massive pager device explosions, all at once, rocked Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday. These pagers, used by hundreds of members of Hezbollah, exploded simultaneously in what appears to be a sophisticated, remote attack.

Hezbollah is an Iran-backed militant group and has blamed Israel for the incident. An eight-year-old girl died in the explosions. The Israeli military has declined to comment on the allegations.

What are pager devices?

The pager devices are small electronic devices that can receive and display numeric or text messages. Unlike cell phones, pager devices depend on radio signals to transmit information. They were popular before cell phones took over, and were being used by Hezbollah to evade Israeli tracking of their movements.

 

Visuals surfaced on social media on Tuesday evening, showing random explosions in supermarkets and other public spaces, causing widespread panic as people rushed to safety.

How did the pager explosions happen?

While there is no official word on how such a large-scale pager attack was carried out, experts have attributed the explosions to a result of supply-chain interference. They believe that it is possible that small explosive devices were installed into these pager devices even before they were delivered to Hezbollah. To carry out the attack at once, it is possible that the explosives were remotely triggered, likely by using a radio signal, experts said.

According to Carlos Perez, director of security intelligence at TrustedSec, by the time of the attack, the battery was probably half-explosive and half-actual battery.

A senior Lebanese security source told news agency Reuters that small quantity of explosives were planted into 5,000 pagers by Israel's Mossad spy agency. It was also reported that the pagers were manufactured by Gold Apollo, a Taiwan-based company, which has denied the claims.

Why were pager devices easier to target?

A former British Army bomb disposal officer explained that pagers contain three components commonly found in explosive devices. An explosive device typically has five main components: a container, a battery, a triggering device, a detonator, and an explosive charge.

Why did Hezbollah fail to intercept the pager attack?

The militant group was using pagers to avoid interception as directed by leader Hassan Nasrallah. The group failed to intercept the attack as these exploded pagers were from a new brand the group had not used before. These set of pagers were procured by Hezbollah over six months ago.

What happens next?

The incident comes amid a raging war in Gaza, going on between Israel and the militant group Hamas, which has triggered a wider regional conflict in West Asia. With the attack, Hezbollah is likely to be promoted to change their communication strategies, experts believe. It is learned that many of the compromised pagers didn’t go off, which are now being used by the group for inspection.