Underground network, hand-to-hand message… These Hezbollah solutions to continue communicating after the sabotage of pagers and walkie-talkies

In Lebanon, the noose is tightening around Hezbollah. After a series of simultaneous explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies in recent days, its chain of command has been amputated. Hezbollah is trying to react after this unprecedented sabotage operation attributed to Israel.

Since the shutdown of pagers and walkie-talkies, Hezbollah has first had to react urgently, particularly through human means. At the moment, for example, in southern Lebanon, certain instructions are being shared from hand to hand, a temporary solution to avoid espionage but which also exposes Hezbollah men to Israeli fire. However, and above all, Hezbollah retains underground lines, with a real parallel telecommunications network that has existed for twenty years and allows it to communicate in isolation. These communications are, however, easier to intercept by Israeli intelligence agents.

In reality, there is now a strong chance that Hezbollah will re-equip itself with pagers and walkie-talkies, but with devices that would have to be studied, dismantled and inspected before being distributed. The group also has a security and technology center responsible for checking this type of equipment. But all this laborious logistical operation will still make the organization vulnerable for days or even weeks to come.

The damage caused by the attack attributed to Israel is of two types. First, it affects the infrastructure, the communications network on the ground, where Hezbollah conducts its operations. Since the beginning of the war, mobile phones or internet connections were banned by its military authorities and pagers and walkie-talkies were used as a means of communication because they were considered inviolable. Ultimately, it is indeed this logistics that is affected and is rendering Hezbollah partly deaf and mute.

Then there is the human toll. Thousands of people have been injured, many of them in Hezbollah’s chain of command. While the less seriously injured are expected to return to the front, hundreds of people still need to be replaced to rebuild its communications network.