Hezbollah’s pagers had security features that made them deadlier: report

A new report says fake pagers carried by members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah have a “sinister feature” that was largely overlooked in the wake of last month’s explosion.

The exploding pagers had two-step decryption, which meant that most users held the devices with both hands at the time of detonation, Washington Post. reported on Saturday.

International observers were shocked in mid-September when pagers used by the militant group and influential political power Hezbollah simultaneously exploded. An explosion also occurred in Syria.

The next day, similar-sized walkie-talkies also carried by members of the Iran-backed organization exploded in what appeared to be a continuation of an extraordinary operation blamed on Israel’s Mossad intelligence service. Israel has not publicly confirmed its involvement.

Dozens of people died, including at least two children, when handheld devices exploded over two consecutive days.

Citing representatives of the authorities of the Middle East, Israel and the United States, Post reported that up to 3,000 Hezbollah agents and members were killed or wounded.

Tehran’s ambassador in Beirut, Mojtaba Amini, lost one eye and suffered serious damage to the other eye as a result of the explosion of the pager on his body, New York Times reports, citing two anonymous members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Explosives ‘virtually undetectable’

Each pager – weighing about three ounces – contained a “small amount of powerful explosive” Post said, citing officials familiar with the operation. The report found that the explosive in the battery was “virtually undetectable” even after dismantling the device.

Hezbollah dismantled a number of devices, Post he reported, citing Israeli authorities, adding that the pagers could even undergo X-ray examinations.

Israel is currently about a week away from a ground invasion of southern Lebanon after almost a year of regular exchanges of fire with Hezbollah, which is attacking Israel’s north in what it calls solidarity with Hamas.

Reports suggest that the work to design and place pagers within Hezbollah’s ranks took much longer.

Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging fire over Israel’s northern border for almost a year after the Iran-backed group said it was acting in solidarity with the Palestinian militant organization Hamas.

Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the United States, carried out unprecedented attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing approximately 1,200 people and taking approximately 250 people hostage in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Following the attack, Israel declared war on Hamas, and ground operations and intense airstrikes destroyed Palestinian territory. Humanitarian organizations have been sounding the alarm over the fate of some 2 million people in Gaza, many of whom they say have been repeatedly displaced with little or no access to vital resources.

Hamas-led health authorities in Gaza said more than 41,000 people have died in the Gaza Strip since Israel vowed to root out Hamas after the October attacks.

Recent weeks have drawn new attention to Israel’s north and Lebanon’s south. Israel said it was carrying out “limited, localized and targeted airstrikes” on southern Lebanon on October 1 in what it dubbed “Operation Northern Arrows.”

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told reporters shortly after the pager explosions that “the logic of triggering the explosion of all these devices is to do it as a pre-emptive strike before a major military operation.”

Israeli airstrikes took place across Lebanon, including in the southern suburbs of the capital.

Israel killed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah more than a week ago after an attack on the southern outskirts of Beirut. On Saturday, Reuters, citing a Lebanese security source, reported that Nasrallah’s likely successor, Hashem Safieddine, had been unavailable since Friday after the Israeli strike.

The Israel Defense Forces said Sunday that its air force carried out a “series of targeted attacks” on so-called Hezbollah weapons sites and “infrastructure” around Beirut.

Eyewitnesses told Reuters that there were “massive, consecutive attacks” in southern Beirut on Sunday morning. The Lebanese National News Agency reported “more than 30” attacks in the southern suburbs in what it called the “most brutal night” since Israeli operations began.