A wave of explosions from beepers carried by Hezbollah members. Lebanon was the target of a major and unprecedented attack on Tuesday afternoon, September 17, which caused the death of at least nine people and injured nearly 2,800, according to the country’s Ministry of Health. Hezbollah, a Lebanese Islamist movement supported by Iran, blames these explosions on Israel, which has not commented. This operation comes at a time when the border area between Israel and Lebanon has been the scene of frequent exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, since the attack of October 7, 2023.
1 How did those pagers explode?
It was around 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday when a pager, a paging system, attached to the belt of a man standing at a store checkout, rang. Barely a second later, the small black device exploded, according to CCTV footage. At the same time, the scene was repeated elsewhere across Lebanon, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, in the south of the country and in the eastern Bekaa plain, or, according to Release, “the exact mapping of Hezbollah’s implantation”. In another video, a pager is seen exploding in the hands of a man at a market.
According to the Lebanese Minister of Health, most of the victims were affected “in the face, in the hand, in the stomach and even in the eyes.” Dozens of ambulances carrying the wounded rushed to hospitals in Beirut, the Bekaa and the southern Lebanese city of Saida on Tuesday. In Beirut’s southern suburbs, tents were set up to accommodate residents who rushed to donate blood.
2 Who are the victims?
Most of those injured or killed were Hezbollah militants who were carrying the beepers. There were also collateral victims, according to Lebanese authorities: among the dead was a ten-year-old girl killed by the explosion of her father’s beeper, as well as the son of a Hezbollah MP. Iran’s ambassador to Beirut, Mojtaba Amani, was also injured, Iranian television reported, as were fourteen Hezbollah members in Syria, according to an NGO.
3 Why does Hezbollah use these pagers?
These devices are used to communicate quickly, wirelessly and without an internet connection to receive short messages and alerts, thanks to a radio messaging system, with lower frequencies than for mobile telephony. Also called pagersthey were used by the general public in the 90s, before the advent of cell phones. Concretely, the pager is a box, ancestor of the mobile phone, which became widespread at the end of the 1970s.
“Users enter a code into the device, which is transmitted to a reception center or system that sends a notification to the pager”explains the Lebanese media LBC International. If Hezbollah chose to equip its fighters with pagers, it is because the assassinations carried out by the Israeli army against them have multiplied. Which forced it to rethink its means of communicating.
4 How could they have been intercepted?
THE New York Times claims, citing American and other officials, that Israeli intelligence managed to intercept the pagers before they arrived in Lebanon. The American daily believes that they were able to hide small quantities of explosives and a detonator next to the battery. Also according to the New York Timesa message appearing to come from Hezbollah leadership caused the device to beep for several seconds Tuesday before triggering the explosive.
These pagers bear the Gold Apollo brand, but this Taiwanese group claimed on Wednesday morning that the devices concerned were produced and sold by its Hungarian partner BAC. “Under a cooperation agreement, we authorize BAC to use our brand for the sale of products in certain regions, but the design and manufacture of the products are the sole responsibility of BAC.”explained Gold Apollo, in a statement issued in response to the information from the New York Timeswhich cites this group as the supplier of the products. “Our company only provides permission to use the brand and is not involved in the design and manufacturing” of this beeper, the group emphasizes.
For Yehoshua Kalisky, a researcher at the Israeli Security Institute interviewed by franceinfo, the Hebrew state is without a doubt behind the operation. “There are two possible ways this could have happened. One is that the explosion system was introduced into the factory where the machines were purchased. Maybe someone, somewhere, installed this system. That’s one possibility. The other option is that a remote electronic pulse caused the battery to explode.“, according to the researcher. According to him, the region has just witnessed “one of the most impressive operations of recent years“.
5 Why does Hezbollah blame Israel for the attack?
Shortly after the simultaneous wave of explosions, Hezbollah declared that Israel was “fully responsible” and assured that he would “receive his just punishment”The Lebanese Minister of Education announced the closure of schools and universities on Wednesday, to condemn “this criminal act committed by the Israeli enemy”.
On Wednesday, the Islamist movement created forty-two years ago reaffirmed that it “will continue” its operations in support of the Palestinian Hamas despite this attack. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah announced that he would speak on these events on Thursday at 5 p.m. (4 p.m. Paris time). Iran also accused Israel of “mass killing” after the pagers exploded.
Israel has not yet commented on the attacks. They come as the IDF announced its decision to extend the war’s objectives to the Israeli-Lebanese border, in order to allow the return of displaced people to northern Israel. Until now, the main stated objectives were the destruction of Hamas, in power since 2007 in Gaza, and the return of hostages held in the Palestinian territory.
6 What are the international reactions?
For its part, Washington refused to comment on the attribution of this attack. “I can tell you that the United States was not involved in this, that they were not aware of this incident in advance, and at this point we are gathering information.”the State Department spokesman said. American diplomacy urges Iran to avoid any action that would further escalate tensions.
This series of explosions marks a “extremely worrying escalation”the UN responded. On Tuesday evening, the German airline Lufthansa announced the suspension, at least until Thursday, of its flights to and from Tel Aviv and Tehran. Air France, for its part, is suspending its connections to Beirut and Tel Aviv, also until September 19.