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Paging Hezbollah

The New Neo Posted on by

I didn’t even know that this could be done or how this could be done, but apparently it’s a real story. This time, the word “unprecedented” is fully warranted (unless you’re talking about a science fiction writer’s fevered dream):

At least nine people were killed and thousands were injured when pagers held by Hezbollah members across Lebanon exploded on Tuesday afternoon, in what appeared to be a widescale, coordinated attack attributed to Israel.

The unprecedented wave of explosions, which also reportedly killed and injured several people in Syria, sparked chaos in a region already on high alert for the outbreak of full-scale hostilities.

It came hours after Israel designated the halting of Hezbollah’s attacks one of its main war goals and announced that it had foiled an assassination attempt by the Iranian proxy group against a former senior official.

Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad said in an evening press conference that nine people were killed and 2,750 more were injured in the blasts, including some 200 people in critical condition.

Iranian proxy Hezbollah has clearly been contemplating a huge attack on Israel in addition to the rockets that rain on Israel daily and have meant that, ever since October 7, citizens who ordinarily live in the northern part of Israel have been mostly evacuated and living as internal refugees.

Hezbollah claims that some non-Hezbollah members died or were injured in this pager attack, and I don’t doubt it. However, these were pagers, not cellphones, and therefore I would imagine there isn’t a whole lot of lending out of one’s pager.

An attack of this type has tremendous shock value in the psychological sense in addition to the physical sense. The message is something like: “we see when when you’re sleeping, we know when you’re awake – and we can get you in ways you’ve never even imagined.” It also adds to the perception that the Israeli intelligence forces still have nearly-magical powers, although those powers were sorely lacking on October 7.

As I already said, I haven’t a clue how this could be done. Did the pagers originate in Israel in the first place? I doubt it. Perhaps some Israeli scientists were told, by some Hezbollah-based spy or mole, what sort of paging equipment the terrorists of Hezbollah use, and a vulnerability in the lithium batteries was exploited. This article says that Hezbollah used to employ mobile phones but switched to pagers, but doesn’t say when. Also:

“It looks likely that the pagers they [Hezbollah] purchased may have been compromised and turned into remote bombs,” [an anonymous Israeli] security expert said, stressing that this was just speculation based on his expertise.

Related theories here:

Reportedly, the Israeli intelligence send a message to the pagers which shortened the batteries of the pagers, causing them to explode.

Another, less Tom Clancy‘ish explanation would be that these fighters all belonged to the same unit and someone sabotaged them (assuming here that pagers are routinely collected, stored and distributed; which would mean that pagers were distributed this morning; perhaps it’s a mix of both).

In other words, who knows?

Comments

Paging Hezbollah — 30 Comments

  1. Lot of ways it could be done. It would make sense for Israel to be as cagey about this as possible.

    More interesting to me is the reaction of people horrified by the collateral damage. It’s a lot less collateral damage than raining missiles or artillery on Gaza or Lebanon, and a hell of a lot more surgical than anything Israel’s enemies ever do. And more evidence, if any were needed, that the bias against Israel is unrelated to what Israel actually does.

  2. I think the only organizations that still use pagers here in the US are perhaps some restaurants who give them out to customers waiting for tables so they can be paged when one is ready. I assume Hezbollah uses pagers since being somewhat antiquated tech in certain ways they can be a more secure form of communication.

    My guess is that the pagers actually had small proper explosives in them (as opposed to some hacked firmware causing a lithium battery thermal runnaway explosion). Which of course would mean they were able to successfully pass off these compromised pagers to Hezbollah likely by knowing a fair bit about the venders they purchase them from and sneaking them into the supply chain.

  4. Mossad is Comin’ to Town

    “They sees you when you’re sleepin’,
    They knows when you’re awake,
    They knows if you’ve been bad or good,
    So be good for goodness sake.”

  6. assuming here that pagers are routinely collected, stored and distributed;

    That’s really far-fetched. The pager-carriers are all over Lebanon and the Middle East, and they don’t all check in to the office at 5 pm daily and check out at 8. Other reasons for blowing up? A remote self-destruct option during emergencies, or on discovery that one’s pager has been swiped?

  7. Paging Wile E. Coyote.

    Next on the agenda: Hezbollah operatives are crushed by falling anvils.

  8. My guess is that the pagers actually had small proper explosives in them (as opposed to some hacked firmware causing a lithium battery thermal runnaway explosion). Which of course would mean they were able to successfully pass off these compromised pagers to Hezbollah likely by knowing a fair bit about the venders they purchase them from and sneaking them into the supply chain.

    I hope it’s something like that. My big fear that is if somebody figured out how to blow up a pager remotely the info will eventually leak into the real world and instead of miscreants using tech to SWAT people that they some how get this tech to blow up some poor schmucks phone.

  10. Guess the ‘racist lowlife Laura Loomer will celebrating these poor “Hez-ball-less” victims deaths & injuries… 😉

    H/T The Mossad: Satirical and Awesome

  11. Hezbollah health ministry same as Hamas and about as trustworthy

    Now sometimes the technique does leak salameh was hit by car bomber, the ones al queda used against us as well as hezbollah

    So im not going to issue even crocodile tears on that score the blood price in not only beirut but baghdad madrid buenos aires

  12. I have to comment that I am a bit disappointed by the low number of Hezbollah terrorists who were involved.

    But I guess that’s because unlike her enemies Israel does its best to limit “civilian” casualties.

  13. Regarding the current use of pagers.

    My nephew worked for a volunteer fire department and they had pagers.

    I think I have seen some medical personnel in hospitals with them in recent years.

  15. According to Officials briefed on the matter who spoke with the New York Times; the Thousands of Encrypted Pagers which Exploded today in Lebanon, resulting in Hundreds of Hezbollah Members to be Killed or Critically Injured, were Imported into Lebanon by the Taiwanese-Based Pager Company, Gold Apollo. With the Pagers having been Boobytrapped by Israeli Agents before reaching Lebanon, where roughly 1-2 Ounces of Explosive Material was placed next to the Device Battery, alongside a Trigger to allow Remote Detonation.

    At 3:30PM earlier today, the Pagers received a Message that appeared to be coming from Senior Hezbollah Leadership, which then Activated the Explosive within the Device; with the Pagers being Programmed to “Beep” several times before Exploding.

    https://x.com/sentdefender/status/1836169898512277936

  18. This is an incredible action by the Israelis. It couldn’t have happened to a more deserving group of people. Excepting collateral injuries, which would appear to be rather minimal given the video clips of the explosions I saw.

    It reminds me of the next to last season of the TV series Justified, with the following scene:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZjv-TaGwVQ

  19. Karmi:

    Another day, another Karmi strawman.

    No one was accusing LL of racism for praising the killing of terrorists.

  20. 11 dead, the rest marked. With apologies to Princess Bride fans…
    Mossad:
    I do not mean to pry, but you don’t by any chance happen to have six three fingers on your right hand?

    Hezbollah:
    Do you always begin conversations this way?

  21. Pagers became very popular in the1980s when their range was expanded. I used a pager when I was on reserve. That way I could leave the house and do yardwork, run errands, etc.- no more being stuck close to the phone waiting for a call from the crew desk.

    I didn’t think they were still around since cell phones have become so ubiquitous. The fact that cells can be tracked is a double-edged sword. It’s good for law enforcement and tech companies. Bad for crooks and terrorists.

    Devilish smart of those Mossad agents. In a world of technology, the Israelis have the edge over their jihadi enemies.

  22. “My guess is that the pagers actually had small proper explosives in them (as opposed to some hacked firmware causing a lithium battery thermal runnaway explosion). Which of course would mean they were able to successfully pass off these compromised pagers to Hezbollah likely by knowing a fair bit about the venders they purchase them from and sneaking them into the supply chain.”

    From what I have seen seen so far, my bet would be Massad intercepted a large shipment of pagers, opened them up, added tthe Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), and hacked the firmware. They could have reflashed it, replaced a chip, etc. the alternative would have been to compromise the software, to cause the battery to overheat, upon command. But, if they have te papers open they might as well hack them at te same time. One question – did they send out a single message, and the various pagers too different times to overheat and blow up, or were they triggered separately?

    It had several benefits. First, and obviously, the in terrorem effect. Secondly, the locations of te pagers showed Israeli Intelligence where a ot of their operatives actually were in Lebanon.

  23. Another site, an interesting idea: Now the Israelis know, based on who went to see their wounded friends or family members, a whole heck of a lot about the network out to the cousins in some cases.

    But you know a lot of the Just and Righteous are grumbling about the lack of dead civilians.

  26. I’d bet my bottom dollar that Mossad hacked the hospital network beforehand and is now compiling a list of people who suddenly needed emergency room visits yesterday.

  27. ToI, Blinken denies US had advance knowledge of Hezbollah pager blasts in Lebanon: https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/blinken-denies-us-had-advance-knowledge-of-hezbollah-pager-blasts-in-lebanon/

    “The United States did not know about, nor was it involved in, these incidents. We’re still gathering the information and gathering the facts,” Blinken says at a press conference in Cairo.

    “Broadly speaking we’ve been very clear and we remain very clear about the importance of all parties avoiding any steps that could further escalate the conflict that we’re trying to resolve in Gaza,” he says.

    Don’t win your war, Blinken says to Israel, and don’t you dare defeat Hezbollah on your northern border, lest the United States be forced to go further to war with you than it already is, you pip-squeak nation of pathetic Jews.

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