Israel infiltrated a supply chain to cause the simultaneous explosion of hundreds of Hezbollah pagers. That’s the verdict of some analysts. Israel killed at least nine people and wounded around 2,800, including the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, when the pagers exploded across the country in an unprecedented simultaneous attack.
It all begs the question: are we allowed to call Israel a terrorist state, yet?
Israel: setting off bombs in other countries
With Hezbollah appearing to prefer the use of pagers for internal communications over smartphones for security reasons, analysts said it appeared Israel had corrupted the devices before delivery, allowing them to explode at a specific time.
A source close to Hezbollah, asking not to be identified, told AFP that:
the pagers that exploded concern a shipment recently imported by Hezbollah of 1,000 devices… which appear to have been sabotaged at source.
Brussels-based military and security analyst Elijah Magnier said:
For Israel to embed an explosive trigger within the new batch of pagers, they would have likely needed access to the supply chain of these devices. Israeli intelligence has infiltrated the production process, adding an explosive component and remote triggering mechanism into the pagers without raising suspicion.
This, he said, raised the prospect the third party which sold the devices could have been an “intelligence front” set up by Israel for the purpose.
Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute said:
This was more than lithium batteries being forced into override. A small plastic explosive was almost certainly concealed alongside the battery, for remote detonation via a call or page.
“Mossad infiltrated the supply chain,” he concluded, referring to Israel’s intelligence agency. The Wall Street Journal cited people familiar with the matter as saying the affected pagers were from a new shipment that the group received in recent days.
Chaos in Lebanon as pagers explode
The countless explosions caused chaos across Lebanon.
At one hospital in Beirut’s southern suburbs, an AFP correspondent saw people being treated in a car park on thin mattresses, with medical gloves on the ground and ambulance stretchers covered in blood.
At another hospital in the area, the correspondent saw one person wounded in the face, eye and hand, and another on the side of his waist, with a third person being treated in a car.
Musa, a resident of Beirut’s southern suburbs requesting to be identified only by his first name, said:
In all my life I’ve never seen someone walking on the street… and then explode. My wife and I were going to the doctor, I found people lying on the ground in front of me.
People didn’t know what was happening.
One witness, requesting anonymity, told AFP he saw a Hezbollah member’s pager explode immediately after he received a message on the device.
Dubai-based analyst Riad Kahwaji said that Israel had taken advantage of Hezbollah’s move away from smartphones to pagers:
Without a doubt, one of the factories it (Israel) owns manufactured and shipped these explosive devices that exploded today.
Can we call Israel a terrorist state, yet?
So, an organised group corrupts the supply chain of its enemy’s communications technology; turns the devices into bombs, and then denotates them in busy public places in a foreign country. It seemingly has the aim of striking fear into both the government and the public. Yet it and the other country are not officially at war.
Meanwhile, the terrorist group’s members celebrate the atrocity openly – with no concern for the non-combatants the bombings had killed or injured:
🚨 Breaking: Tens of Hezbollah communication devices are exploding during the past hour. Initial reports state that over one hundred Hezbollah terrorists already injured.
Here's footage from two such explosion 👇 pic.twitter.com/rMwdRWsTGB
— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) September 17, 2024
It’s reported that possibly over a thousand Hezbollah terrorists were killed or injured when a cyberattack on their secure cellphones and pagers caused them to explode.
It’s almost… biblical.
Kaboom 💥 pic.twitter.com/QmK4tJyUsr
— Cheryl E 🇮🇱🇮🇱🇮🇱🎗️ (@CherylWroteIt) September 17, 2024
Paging Hezbollah… Oh, wait. 🎇🇮🇱💪💣
The reports are absolutely crazy.
Israel managed to detonate hundreds of communication devices of Hezbollah terrorists all at the same time and across all of Lebanon.
Reports of many of them eliminated and many others severely injured.… pic.twitter.com/OVVv9dx7ZZ
— Hillel Fuld (@HilzFuld) September 17, 2024
Under any other circumstance, Israel’s actions would be classed as terrorism.
But of course, it’s Israel.
So, whether it be genocide, war crimes, or indeed carrying out a terrorist act – it is self defence.
Featured image via the Canary
Additional reporting via Agence France-Presse
