Why did the Hezbollah pagers explode and was Israel behind the deadly attack?
18 September 2024, 10:36 | Updated: 18 September 2024, 11:14
Tuesday's Hezbollah pager explosion attack rocked the Middle East, adding an extraordinary new dimension to the conflict that has been raging for nearly a year.
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The exploding pagers injured around 3,000 people across Lebanon, killing 12 including two children, according to the country's government.
Footage shared on social media showed pagers blowing up in people's pockets in supermarkets.
Lebanon blamed Israel, who declined to comment. The two have been trading blows for months against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, and have a history of conflict stretching back decades.
But how did the pagers explode?
Why were Hezbollah using pagers in the first place?
Hezbollah leaders told operatives - including fighters and medics - earlier this year not to use smartphones because they would be open to cyber attacks from Israel.
"The phone that we have in our hands - I do not have a phone in my hand - is a listening device," warned Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in a speech in February.
He later added: "I tell you that the phone in your hands, in your wife's hands, and in your children's hands is the agent. It is a deadly agent, not a simple one.
"It is a deadly agent that provides specific and accurate information. Therefore, this requires great seriousness when confronting it."
Fighters were told to use pagers instead. Pagers work by sending short texts and notifications to users.
They also run on a different wireless network than mobile phones, making them more resilient in emergencies - one of the reasons why many hospitals worldwide still rely on them.
But using low-tech communication methods did not make the Hezbollah operatives any safer.
Where were the pagers from?
The AR-924 pagers were manufactured by Hungarian company BAC Consulting KFT, but bore the branding of Taiwanese company Gold Apollo.
This was authorised, Gold Apollo said. Chairman Hsu Ching-kuang told journalists on Wednesday that his company has had a licensing agreement with BAC for the past three years.
Hezbollah ordered the pagers from Gold Apollo earlier this year. Police were seen at the company's offices in Taiwan on Wednesday.
The AR-924 pager, advertised as being "rugged", contains a rechargeable lithium battery with 85 days of life - crucial in Lebanon where electrical outages are common.
The pagers can receive texts of up to 100 characters.
Were Israel behind the attacks?
Israel has not commented publicly on the attacks, but it has been widely reported that its intelligence and military were responsible.
Hezbollah said that Mossad, the Israeli spy agency, planted explosives inside 5,000 pagers, intervening "at the production level."
A Hezbollah source told Reuters that three grams of explosives were hidden inside each of the pagers.
They claimed that the pagers were rigged to explode when they received a specific code.
Another source told the news agency that "the Mossad injected a board inside of the device that has explosive material that receives a code."
They added: "It's very hard to detect it through any means. Even with any device or scanner."
Around 3,000 of the 5,000 pagers exploded.
Some reports have claimed that Israel planned to detonate the pagers later, but ended up blowing them up early because they were concerned that Hezbollah would soon uncover the plot.
CCTV shows moment man's bag blows up in Lebanon during pager attack
What happened as a result of the attacks?
Some 2,750 people were injured and 12 people were killed, including two children, according to the Lebanese government.
Lebanon's health minister, Firas Abiad, told journalists during a tour of hospitals on Wednesday morning that many of the wounded suffered "severe injuries to the eyes" and others had limbs amputated.
At about 3.30pm on Tuesday, as people shopped for food, sat in cafes or drove cars and motorcycles, the pagers in their hands or pockets started heating up and then exploding - leaving blood-splattered scenes and panicking bystanders.
It appeared that many of those hit were members of Hezbollah, but it was not immediately clear if non-Hezbollah members also carried any of the exploding pagers.
The blasts were mainly in areas where the group has a strong presence, particularly a southern Beirut suburb and in the Beqaa region of eastern Lebanon, as well as in Damascus, according to Lebanese security officials and a Hezbollah official.
Conflict journalist explains why all ‘fingers point to Israel’ over the explosions in Lebanon
Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, said the explosions killed a 10-year-old girl and critically injured 200.
“About 2,750 people were injured … more than 200 of them critically,” he said on Tuesday afternoon.
A Hezbollah spokesperson said it was the "biggest security breach yet".
Footage shared on social media showed pagers blowing up in people's pockets, and other images showed wounded victims of the blasts.
Iran's ambassador was also said to have been injured in the attack.Hezbollah claimed that the pagers were blown up by Israel, with whom it has been trading blows for months.
The UN has branded the alleged attack "deplorable."
