Hezbollah Members Pagers Explode Simultaneously

[Kathianne]

Gee, that was some product defect! FOX is saying over a thousand.

https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/hundreds-of-hezbollah-operatives-pagers-explode-in-apparent-attack-across-lebanon-cf31cad4?st=KxAKoH&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink


Hundreds of Hezbollah Operatives’ Pagers Explode in Apparent Attack Across LebanonMany Hezbollah me
A man whose pager exploded is taken to a hospital in Beirut. Photo: Hussein Malla/Associated Press
BEIRUT—Pagers carried by hundreds of Hezbollah operatives exploded Tuesday, leaving many of them injured in an unprecedented event that struck across Lebanon.


The affected pagers were from a new shipment that the group received in recent days, people familiar with the matter said. A Hezbollah official said hundreds of fighters had such devices, speculating that malware may have caused the devices to heat up and explode. The official said some people felt the pagers heat up and disposed of them before they burst.


It couldn’t immediately be determined what caused the blasts, which were spread out across the country in several areas where Hezbollah has a heavy presence. The Israeli military didn’t immediately comment.


The numbers of casualties were rising too quickly to count, a Hezbollah official said.


Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad said he needed more time to determine the total number of casualties but assessed that the number of emergency room admissions in southern Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold, was extremely high.


The incident comes amid growing tension along Lebanon’s border with Israel. Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel soon after the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks on southern Israel that set off the war in Gaza, and the two sides have exchanged fire daily since then, driving tens of thousands of people out of towns on both sides of the border and leaving hundreds of Hezbollah operatives dead.


https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/17/middleeast/lebanon-hezbollah-pagers-explosions-intl/index.html


Exploding pagers injure hundreds in attack targeting Hezbollah members, Lebanese security source saysBy CNN’s Charbel Mallo, Tamara Qiblawi, Lauren Kent
1 minute read
Updated 10:39 AM EDT, Tue September 17, 2024






A Lebanese Red Cross ambulance takes wounded people to a hospital in Beirut after the explosions.
A Lebanese Red Cross ambulance takes wounded people to a hospital in Beirut after the explosions. Ibrahim Amro/AFP/Getty Images
CNN
—
Hundreds of people were injured Tuesday in an attack targeting the pagers of Hezbollah members, a Lebanese security source told CNN.


Iran’s Ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was among those injured in Beirut, according to semi-official Iranian media outlet Mehr News.


Lebanon’s Ministry of Health has urged citizens who possess pagers to discard them and warned hospitals to be on “high alert.”


Explosions reportedly occurred in a southern suburb of Beirut known as Dahiyeh, according to Reuters news. NNA reported that “hacked” pager devices exploded in the towns of Ali Al-Nahri and Riyaq in Lebanon’s central Beqaa valley, resulting in a significant number of injuries. All three locations are Hezbollah strongholds.


The Israeli military, which has engaged in tit-for-tat strikes with Hezbollah since the start of the war in Gaza last October, said it would not be commenting on the incident.


Health workers across Lebanon were asked to report urgently to work given the “large number of injured people being transferred to hospitals” following the pager explosions, the Lebanese Ministry of Health said. Officials also called for people to donate blood in anticipation of increased need.

[revelarts]

you know what. I've got no problem if they manage to do this to terrorist.
i think it's great and a GREAT & creative way to conduct an attack.

But somehow what immediately came to my mind was.
if they can I.D. thousands of Hezbollah members and blow up their phones, why can't we ID the phones of pedophiles & human traffickers.. and maybe do the same... then visit them in hospital to arrest them?

It's obviously possible.
And they have already terrorized, kidnapped & abused innocent children, not just "threatened" to.

[Mr. P]

Gee, that was some product defect! FOX is saying over a thousand.

https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/hundreds-of-hezbollah-operatives-pagers-explode-in-apparent-attack-across-lebanon-cf31cad4?st=KxAKoH&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink



https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/17/middleeast/lebanon-hezbollah-pagers-explosions-intl/index.html

Mossad is alive and well!

[Gunny]

Gee, that was some product defect! FOX is saying over a thousand.

https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/hundreds-of-hezbollah-operatives-pagers-explode-in-apparent-attack-across-lebanon-cf31cad4?st=KxAKoH&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink



https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/17/middleeast/lebanon-hezbollah-pagers-explosions-intl/index.htmlKarma :)

[Kathianne]

Karma :)

I'm seeing even higher numbers. Ahem...it seems most of the devices were carried in front pants pocket. Poor 52 virgins.

[Kathianne]

9 dead 2800+ hurt, many serious:

https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/lebanon-pagers-attack-hezbollah/index.html

[fj1200]

We live in a strange world.

[Gunny]

9 dead 2800+ hurt, many serious:

https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/lebanon-pagers-attack-hezbollah/index.htmlGenius. Hezbollah's pagers. If you're not a member of Hezbollah, you shouldn't have one. If you blow up? Oh well.

Perhaps Iran should have thought about that before announcing its boy got hurt when one blew up. Iran denying supporting terrorists and all. What would he be doing with and/or around a Hezbollah pager?

The UN fool needs to shut up and check her pager.

[Kathianne]

Genius. Hezbollah's pagers. If you're not a member of Hezbollah, you shouldn't have one. If you blow up? Oh well.

Perhaps Iran should have thought about that before announcing its boy got hurt when one blew up. Iran denying supporting terrorists and all. What would he be doing with and/or around a Hezbollah pager?

The UN fool needs to shut up and check her pager.

I'm guessing Hezbollah, Hamas, etc., aren't going to be very confident carrying any electronics provided by Iranian proxies:

https://nypost.com/2024/09/17/world-news/israels-mossad-intelligence-agency-intercepted-hezbollah-pagers-and-rigged-them-with-high-explosives/


Hezbollah pager explosions caused by high explosive PETN planted by Israel’s Mossad: reportBy Ronny Reyes
Published Sep. 17, 2024, 4:18 p.m. ET


The Israeli spy agency Mossad allegedly intercepted Hezbollah’s shipment of new pagers months ago and rigged them with high explosives — resulting in the stunning attack on the Lebanese terror group Tuesday, according to a new report.


Mossad agents reportedly placed Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), a highly explosive material, inside the batteries of the pagers, sources told Sky News Arabia, according to a translation from the Times of Israel.

The devices were then detonated by an external signal that caused the batteries inside to overheat, the sources added. Israel detonated at will.




Before Tuesday's attack on Hezbollah that left thousands injured after their pagers exploded, Israel has long-been accused of carrying out top secret operations on foreign soil targeting Iran and its terror proxies.
Wild, international operations allegedly carried out by Israel against Iran and its proxies


How Israel could have pulled off the ballsy pager attack on thousands of Hezbollah terrorists at once
A person is carried on a stretcher outside American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) as people, including Hezbollah fighters and medics, were wounded and killed when the pagers they use to communicate exploded across Lebanon.
Paging Hezbollah: How Israel will follow up exploding beepers
The complex operation resulted in a mass attack against Hezbollah operatives, killing nine people and leaving some 2,800 others injured when the pagers detonated on Tuesday morning across Lebanon and in parts of Syria.


Hezbollah confirmed that many of its fighters and medics were injured by the blasts, with one official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, calling it the “biggest security breach” since the group began its near-daily attacks on Israel on Oct. 8.


While Israel refused to comment on the attack, Hezbollah and Lebanese officials have blamed the Jewish State, with the terror group vowing revenge.




The devices that detonated were all the latest models acquired by Hezbollah in recent months and distributed to its members, three security sources told Reuters.


Through the use of malware, the devices could’ve seen their batteries overheat and trigger the explosives.


One Hezbollah official told the Wall Street Journal that some members felt their pagers heat up and disposed of them before they detonated.




Back in March, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had warned his fighters not to carry cell phones around, telling them they could be used to track their movements or carry out some kind of targeted strike.

[Kathianne]

Maybe it's all the assassination attempts and the joy from the left at their target? In any case, I'm just not feeling appropriate sadness at the death and destruction of these terrorists, even some of the innocents-though I do feel regret for them. Then I can't help wonder, how many felt regret for the raping, beheadings, children in ovens, children killed in front of parents and vice versa? Certainly not any of the crazed protesters here or there.

https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2024/09/17/hezbollah-we-bought-pagers-from-some-new-outfit-n3794632


Hezbollah: We Bought Pagers From Some New OutfitEd Morrissey 6:40 PM | September 17, 2024



AP Photo/Bassam Masri
Was it ACME? Please tell me it was ACME.


Whatever their source for 1980s tech was, suffice it to say that Hezbollah will not be a return customer. Pagers got distributed to thousands of significant figures within the Iranian proxy terror army, as a means to keep Israel from penetrating their sensitive communications. Instead, Hezbollah walked into a trap that the Israelis waited for months to trigger.


And it all starts with a bad choice of vendors, according to the Associated Press:


The pagers that exploded had been newly acquired by Hezbollah after the group’s leader ordered members to stop using cell phones, warning they could be tracked by Israeli intelligence. A Hezbollah official told The Associated Press the pagers were a new brand the group had not used before.


At about 3:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday, pagers started heating up and then exploding in the pockets and hands of those carrying them -- particularly in a southern Beirut suburb and the Beqaa region of eastern Lebanon where Hezbollah has a strong presence, and in Damascus, where several Hezbollah members were wounded, Lebanese security officials and a Hezbollah official said. The Hezbollah official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.


Yes, because when you need mission-critical infrastructure, always choose some new and untested outfit. To be fair, the Department of Defense sometimes makes that same choice, albeit with far more oversight over product manufacturing. Nor are we alone in that either, although this error was clearly a lot less fatal:




Back to the pagers, however, which were part of a critical security strategy for the terror group. Did Hezbollah even bother to inspect the pagers before sending them to every important figure within their command structure? Apparently not, which would be their second mistake in outsourcing.


But how did Israel rig the pagers? Some suggested a malware implant that overloaded a lithium-ion battery, but lithium-ion fires are usually incendiary. None of the explosions caught on video produced an ongoing fire, which means ...


The images seen Tuesday showed signs of detonation, said Alex Plitsas, a weapons expert at the Atlantic Council. “A lithium ion battery fire is one thing, but I’ve never seen one explode like that. It looks like a small explosive charge,” Plitsas said.


That raises the possibility Israel was aware of a shipment of pagers heading to Hezbollah and managed to modify the pagers before delivery, he said.


Most pagers use replaceable batteries rather than rechargeable batteries anyway. At least, that was true in the 1980s and 1990s when pagers were in common use. That would make more sense for a distributed network in areas that may not have reliable electricity for recharging, too.


Sky News Arabia and Al Jazeera now report that the Israelis intercepted the delivery of the pagers and modified them with explosive charges. The method of detonation is still unknown, but this was a massive and time-consuming operation if this report is accurate:


Sky News Arabia quotes sources saying that today’s large-scale pager attack in Lebanon was possible because the Mossad spy agency got hold of Hezbollah’s communication devices before they were handed over to the terror group.


The Israeli spy agency placed a quantity of PETN, a highly explosive material, on the batteries of the devices, and detonated them by raising the temperature of the batteries from afar, the source says. ...


Al Jazeera quotes a Lebanese security source saying that the weight of the explosive placed in each device was below 20 grams, and that the pagers that were blown up were imported five months ago. An investigation is being conducted into how the explosive charge was activated, the source adds.


Imagine how much time and effort it took to install a PETN charge in thousands of pagers. Not only did it have to work, but the Israelis had to ensure that the pagers looked as though no one had tampered with a single one of them. Otherwise, Hezbollah would have recognized the tampering and realized the potential danger.


And one has to wonder what else the Israelis did with those pagers. Did they rig them with some sort of beacon to allow tracking of Hezbollah's officers in Lebanon and elsewhere? That might explain how the Israelis remained accurate in their pinpoint attacks even after Hezbollah gave up cellphones and dumbed down their communications infrastructure. They may have also been able to track the data on these pagers by modifying the code. One presumes that they modified the code enough to trigger the explosives on their command, and other modifications can't be ruled out.


Hezbollah may have handled its pager program incompetently, but they understand what operational security is. Both they and the Iranians have to be asking themselves what Israel may have gotten from months of pager data before setting them to explode today, and what that means for any previous plans for both offense and defense.


And that brings us to another benefit from this operation. October 7 had damaged Israel's credibility on both defense and offense, which made for a dangerous reduction in Israel's deterrent value. The breathtaking results of this operation has to force both Hezbollah and Iran to recalculate the risks of a full-scale war, and indeed of any more provocations. That doesn't mean they'll quit fighting, but the odds on that certainly improved today, even while Hezbollah promises revenge for Pagercide.

[Kathianne]

Well if this article is correct, the exploding pagers weren't meant to kill, but did have a purpose.
Much more at site, can't c & p:

https://twitchy.com/gordon-k/2024/09/17/what-happened-in-lebanon-beyond-the-memes-n2401107


What Happened in Lebanon - Beyond the MemesGordon K


|
9:45 PM on September 17, 2024



AP Photo/Sarah Mercier/Newseum/FBI Tour
Today has been a great day for Israel and memes thanks to a clever anti-terrorist operation that caused pagers to blow up injuring and killing the Hezbollah operatives who carried them.


So far not much is known about the who, what, how and why, but here is an excellent, but unconfirmed summary.




The rest of the Tweet.


When the pagers turned on, the batteries heated and activated the explosive.


3. The pagers got distributed to terrorists who had their balls exploded. It was funny. Yes, some big holes and a couple standbyers may have gotten burned. But this wasnt intended to kill anyone.


4. This was an intelligence operation. Everyone who got exploded (~1200) will seek medical help. Mossad will then collect their names and data and create a massive Hezbollah terrorist network map.


This was smart and cool and targeted the bad guys. Sometimes Israel can go a bit too far.


This wasn’t it. It was targeted, smart and hilarious.


They named it “Below the Belt” operation. I’m ok with it. No civilians were caught in any serious crossfire here. I’m not a blind defender of Israel But I’m not gonna cry to see Islamic terrorists who hate the West and would kill me in a heartbeat having their balls exploded right beneath them.


Once again, All things accounted for, The overall result was smart and great.


NUT FREE ZONE: Here's Some of the Most EXPLODINGLY Funny Pager Memes Following Hezbollah Pager Explosions
Sam J.
Continuing.










It was a good operation - unless you are Hezbollah, an Ivy League professor or one of their brainwashed intersectional communist students.


There was much appreciation.




When Ron Coleman approves, you can take it to the bank.




We prefer "Operation Seventy-two Amused Virgins".




Again, this information isn't authoritative, just well researched and smart.




Stay tuned as this is a developing story.


***

[SassyLady]

Today it is walkie talkies and solar systems exploding.

[Gunny]

Maybe it's all the assassination attempts and the joy from the left at their target? In any case, I'm just not feeling appropriate sadness at the death and destruction of these terrorists, even some of the innocents-though I do feel regret for them. Then I can't help wonder, how many felt regret for the raping, beheadings, children in ovens, children killed in front of parents and vice versa? Certainly not any of the crazed protesters here or there.

https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2024/09/17/hezbollah-we-bought-pagers-from-some-new-outfit-n3794632The pagers originated in Tawain. There is a middle man but I don't recall which country. If I get ambitious, I'll look :).
Doesn't mean the middle man participated. Just a means of access.

Exploding a batch of pagers set to a same frequency would not be that hard. Pagers operate at lower frequencies than phone. That pretty much sums up my knowledge of pagers :)

[Kathianne]

The pagers originated in Tawain. There is a middle man but I don't recall which country. If I get ambitious, I'll look :).
Doesn't mean the middle man participated. Just a means of access.

Exploding a batch of pagers set to a same frequency would not be that hard. Pagers operate at lower frequencies than phone. That pretty much sums up my knowledge of pagers :)

Batteries don't explode, they catch fire. These had explosives

[Gunny]

Batteries don't explode, they catch fire. These had explosivesHaven't seen a pager since Ashley was in HS. I seem to maybe recall there was an issue with some catching fire.

To clarify what I meant, if the explosives are set with a detonator that is activated at a certain frequency by an incoming call, that's about all it takes. If they took the time to plant the explosives, no doubt they set the frequency. Haven't yet heard of any instances of collateral damage via separate electronics.

I like the operation name :) Not for nothing or not, the Viet Cong would use a device called a "Bouncing Betty". Step on the mechanism (concealed on the ground in the jungle) and the charge pops crotch high and explodes. Not a lethal charge. I lost to one in infantry training school. Fortunately, the training aid just popped :)

I consider this sheer genius and no, I don't feel sorry for anyone in Hezbollah. I hope all of them got their cajones blown off. Hezbollah still owes me the blood of 241 Marines, more than a couple being acquaintances. One was my bunky in boot camp. I'd have set them to blow their heads off:smoke:

[Kathianne]

Speaking of planning long range:

https://www.battleswarmblog.com/?p=60301


Israel’s Supply Chain Hack: Manufactured, Not Altered

More information about Israel’s pager etc. attack against Hezbollah (https://www.battleswarmblog.com/?p=60278) has come to light, and it appears Israel didn’t intercept and adulterate the supply chain, it was the supply chain (https://www.dailywire.com/news/israel-did-not-intercept-hezbollah-pagers-that-exploded-it-made-them?utm_medium=email&utm_source=cnemail&seyid=22697).
Israel has injured thousands across Lebanon, with hundreds in critical condition and dozens more dead, this week in two waves of simultaneous explosions of electronic communications equipment targeting Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists.

The blasts — which may have killed 19 and wounded 150 of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members — started on Tuesday afternoon around 3:30 p.m. local time when pagers used by Hezbollah started beeping with a message from their leadership.

After a few beeps, the pagers simultaneously exploded across the country, blinding hundreds, tearing off limbs, and leaving gaping holes in bodies.

The messages that the devices received were not from Hezbollah leadership; they were from Israel’s intelligence and military apparatus, and they were part of a multi-year plan.

There was initial confusion as to what happened when the explosions were reported. Various news reports said that malware had potentially been uploaded to the devices, causing the batteries to overheat and explode. Then reports surfaced claiming a small amount of highly explosive material had been placed into each device after Israel intercepted the devices after they were manufactured by a Taiwanese company.

However, none of those reports were accurate, according to a New York Times report that revealed that Israel never intercepted the pagers — it made them.
Hezbollah has forced tens of thousands of Israelis to evacuate their homes in northern Israel since October 7 as the terrorist group fires drones, rockets, and missiles on a regular basis — having fired many thousands in nearly 12 months.

Israel has responded with precision strikes, killing more than 300 top Hezbollah commanders and numerous lower-level terrorists.

Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah pushed for the terrorists to abandon their phones and switch to low-tech pagers to avoid being tracked by Israel. Nasrallah had bragged that his strategy would “blind” Israel.

However, unbeknownst to Hezbollah, Israel had been secretly manufacturing the pagers that Hezbollah was buying for years.

The Taiwanese company Gold Apollo had contracted with a company called B.A.C. Consulting in Hungary to manufacture the pagers. B.A.C. Consulting was one of three shell companies that Israel created to mask the true manufacturer of the communications equipment: Israeli intelligence.

B.A.C. Consulting created real pagers for numerous customers to create the perception of a legitimate company in order to get picked up for the contract to produce the pagers for Hezbollah.

The pagers manufactured for Hezbollah were separate from those made for other clients, the report said. The pagers that Hezbollah received “contained batteries laced with the explosive PETN” and began shipping in 2022, the report said.


One of my objections to the “planted explosives” idea was that there was no way for explosives in the battery compartment to access the antenna circuitry to receive the detonation signal, but if Israel designed the pagers from the ground up to go boom then obviously that’s not a problem.


After the first round of explosions on Tuesday, Israel struck again on Wednesday, detonating Hezbollah’s backup communications equipment: walkie-talkies.
The explosions from the walkie-talkies were significantly larger than the explosions from the pagers because the devices were larger, meaning they could be packed with more explosive material. Videos posted online showed entire apartment units blown out and numerous cars engulfed in flames.



My other objection was that Israel would be better off gathering intel from the pagers than making them go boom, but if they manufactured them, they probably have all the intel they need on locations of leadership, warehouses, weapons, etc. It looks like Israel was the one that blinded Hezbollah, not the reverse.

It may also explain why Israel hasn’t assassinated Nasrallah yet: Because he’s evidently an idiot.

There’s been much speculation that with Hezbollah’s communications so compromised, Israel will now move decisively against them. And indeed, right now Israel is pounding the snot out of locations in southern Lebanon.


https://www.battleswarmblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Screen-Shot-2024-09-19-at-12.24.20-PM-1024x662.png


Plus Israeli F-15s are evidently flying over Beirut (https://israelpalestine.liveuamap.com/en/2024/19-september-footage-of-the-iaf-f15-fighter-jets-flying-over) with evident impunity. (Lebanon couldn’t take down Israeli aircraft during the Lebanon War in 2006 either, mainly because they’re using old Soviet crap (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_equipment_of_the_Lebanese_Armed_Forces#Ant i-aircraft_Weapons/Vehicles).)

A lot of MSM commentators have shrieked over and over again during the Israel-Hamas War that Israel was in trouble because they would face a two-front war when Hezbollah really got involved. That didn’t happen. Instead, Israel settled Hamas’ hash in Gaza (where it’s now mopping up), then hit a whole lot of militant factions on the West Bank (https://www.battleswarmblog.com/?p=58827) (an under-reported story), all the while withstanding pinprick strikes from the Mullahs and their proxies while carrying out varied strikes in Syria and Iran.

Having accomplished all that, Israel seems to be moving decisively against Hezbollah. Now Israel is poised to enter a two-front war, but only on its own terms, not Hezbollah’s. It’s almost like Israel had its own Schlieffen Plan to defeat each of its enemies in turn before turning to the next, only competently executed. But with Hezbollah so disorganized, it may not even feel the need to launch a ground incursion into Lebanon.

The end result of the war Hamas’ terrorist atrocity started will be that Israel will be stronger and its borders more secure, all Israel’s terrorist enemies will be destroyed or weaker, and Iran will be shown, yet again, as a very weak horse using incompetent proxies.

Now, as a bonus, here’s a Habitual Linecrosser video on the subject.

Edited to add: “Hezbollah Starting To Think They Shouldn’t Have Gotten Pagers From Levi Goldbraumstein’s Pager Emporium (https://babylonbee.com/news/hezbollah-starting-to-think-they-shouldnt-have-gotten-pagers-from-levi-goldbraumsteins-pager-emporium?utm_source=The%20Babylon%20Bee%20Newslett er&utm_medium=email).”
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