Israel detonate pagers and walkie-talkies in targeted attack

There are reports that Israel's spy agency Mossad is responsible for detonating explosives hidden inside pagers and walkie-talkies used by the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. The blasts, which came within a day of each other, have killed more than twenty people and left thousands more injured. The attacks follow the resumption of Hezbollah’s long standing rancour with Israel, with hostilities increasing dramatically since the start of the war in Gaza. So, what do we know about the targeting of these tech devices inside Lebanon? Scott Lucas is at the University College Dublin’s Clinton Institute, and is also the founder and editor of EA Worldview - which is a leading website on international affairs…

Scott - On September 17th, across Lebanon, a text message was sent to thousands of pagers that belonged to members of Hezbollah. When people looked at that text message, in fact, there was a tiny amount of explosive in the pagers that detonated, which meant that at least 12 people were killed, almost 3000 wounded. Many of them suffered hand injuries from holding the pagers or eye injuries, because of course they were looking at the screen. We thought that would be the full story. But then on September 18th, the same type of operation was carried out through walkie-talkies that again, were believed to be used by Hezbollah members. So we are at a point where having abandoned the use of cell phones because they could be tracked, Hezbollah now finds itself vulnerable with almost any form of communication.

Will - I suppose that's important to clarify from the get go, is that these walkie talkies and pages had an extra element added to them, and that people who own these devices outside of Lebanon are not in any danger.

Scott - No. We do need to make clear that this was not a fault of the devices, the pagers, the walkie-talkies, which means that we have a general threat to people outside of Lebanon. We can now piece the story together in terms of why there was a specific threat, in other words this explosive, and that is because the Israelis manufactured the pagers and they probably manufactured the walkie-talkies. What happened is that the Israelis would manufacture the pagers and they would put in a tiny amount, we think about three grams of explosive, in each of them. Now, of course, the Israelis wouldn't send this to Hezbollah and say, 'here you go, use them'. They were sent through a front company that had been set up by the Israelis, but when Hezbollah received them, they simply thought, oh, this is an order that we had placed with this company that we thought was a legitimate company that had no connection with Israel. They would've no reason to think that the pagers had been doctored. We don't know the full details yet on the walkie-talkies, but it looks like that there was a similar operation where the Israelis used a company in the name of Japan's ICOM who has said, 'no, these, these weren't our walkie talkies that exploded, even though our name was on them', that the Israelis actually manufacture these walkie talkies, put the ICOM name on them, and got them into Hezbollah's hands. This was an elaborate operation that would've taken many, many months involving the setting up of at least three front companies, involving setting up a production capability, involving setting up a supply chain, all for one single purpose to make walkie-talkies, to make pagers not for the general market, but to get them into the hands of Hezbollah members and then to wreak havoc when they exploded.

Will - You touched on it before, but why were Hezbollah resorting to using walkie talkies and pages?

Scott - The immediate conflict that we have between Israel and the Lebanese organisation Hezbollah has escalated since last October 7th, alongside Israel's military operations in Gaza. Because Israel has carried out targeted assassinations that have killed leaders of Hezbollah as well as leaders of the Palestinian organisation Hamas, the Hezbollah overall leader, Hassan Nasrallah, ordered Hezbollah members to stop using cell phones because cell phones enable people to track you. When you use a pager, it reduces your communications toolbox, but it also limits the possibility of surveillance. So Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah had issued that order to stop using cell phones, believing it would increase their security, their operational security. But of course, because the Israelis knew he had issued this order, they immediately started looking at the alternative, which is, can we penetrate the pagers? Can we strike Hezbollah through that?

Will - Do we know what the effect on the communications network is going to be in Lebanon? Because obviously people are going to be shying away from pagers and walkie-talkies for the time being. But there are places like hospitals for which those devices are pretty essential.

Scott - I mean, there was a clear signal just after the pager explosions took place of this widespread effect. And how this is an attack that doesn't just simply target Hezbollah. It affects communications inside a country which is economically crippled, uh, and faces security threats. The United Nations told its staff, staff who are there to assist people in Lebanon in the midst of an economic emergency, a social emergency. That's it. Don't use your phones. Other organisations have done the same thing. You know, the Israelis are trying to reduce Hezbollah to an early 20th century state by removing the modern means of communications upon which we rely.