Hezbollah pager explosions: Thousands injured in targeted attack
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Lebanon has accused Israel of “criminal aggression” after being rocked by explosions, vowing “just retribution” as tensions soar in the Middle East.
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In brief…
- Almost 3000 people have been injured and 12, including two children, have been killed after thousands of pagers - a communications device - exploded across Lebanon.
- The pagers reportedly belonged to members of Hezbollah, a proscribed terrorist organisation by many western countries.
- Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, is allegedly behind the operation. It comes amid soaring tensions as the war in Gaza rages on.
Will Hezbollah seek revenge for explosive pager attacks?
What’s the story?
Thousands of pagers reportedly used by members of the armed group Hezbollah exploded in Lebanon on Tuesday in an attack thought to have been carried out by Israel’s spy agency.
Nearly 3,000 people have been injured, and at least 12 have been killed, including two children. Around 200 people remain in critical condition.
Lebanese security sources say Mossad planted explosives in up to 5,000 pagers “made in Europe” that Hezbollah had ordered from a Taiwanese company.
The Iran-backed group has said the pagers belonged “to employees of various Hezbollah units and institutions”, confirming the death of eight of its members.
The group was reportedly ordered to avoid using mobile phones over concerns of being hacked or tracked, and were issued the pagers instead.
Experts say the plot, which is thought to have been orchestrated alongside Israel’s Defence Forces, must have been months in the making.
Hezbollah has vowed “just retribution” for the incident, calling Israel’s operation an act of “criminal aggression”.
The Israeli military has yet to comment.
What is Hezbollah?
Hezbollah is a powerful political and militant group in control of armed forces in Lebanon.
It was set up in the 1980s by Iran to directly oppose Israel, which at the time had occupied southern Lebanon during a civil war.
The group has taken part in national elections since 1992, making it a significant political presence.
But Hezbollah is also designated a terrorist organisation by many western nations, including the UK.
Its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has claimed that the group’s militant wing has over 100,000 fighters and 120,000-200,000 rockets and missiles, according to estimates.
Why is Israel targeting Hezbollah now?
Hezbollah and Israel have clashed repeatedly over the years, including in a 2006 full-scale war sparked by a cross-border raid by the Lebanese group.
But since October 7, when Hamas attacked Israel and the Israel-Gaza war ensued, tensions have skyrocketed.
In fact, skirmishes at the Israel-Lebanon border have occurred almost daily since then, with Hezbollah explicitly stating it is acting in support of Hamas.
It has launched over 8,000 rockets at northern Israel and other Israeli positions, fired anti-tank missiles at armoured vehicles, and attacked military targets with explosive drones.
Things escalated further when 12 children were killed in a rocket attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on 27 July.
Israel accused Hezbollah of carrying out the attack, but the organisation denied involvement.Then on 30 July, the IDF said that it successfully killed a senior Hezbollah military commander - Fuad Shukr - in an air strike. This sparked fears of extreme retaliation, and indeed, Hezbollah has vowed to continue the fighting until Israel ends its operations in Gaza.
The News Agents take
Emily was stunned by the scenes in Lebanon.
“The scale was so big,.. you're kind of going ‘what just happened?
“How did you know that every pager was going to be a Hezbollah operative?”
But there is also a worrying aspect to this too, Emily adds.
She says: "We've grown up thinking that war is something that happens on borders of countries, between countries. It happens in the sky. It happens at sea. And suddenly, the thing about this particular act is that is so domestic.
"I find that really scary. It's like we've just reintroduced a whole new level of warfare that I hadn't imagined.
Jon agrees that there is an element “in which it is quite remarkable”.
But he adds: "I think that very few militaries have the capability to do that...This was so specific and focused that I suspect it can't be repeated."
But like Emily, he wonders what Israel's calculation was in doing this.
Jon says: “Is it a part of something else? What is going to be the response of Hezbollah? And where does it stand in terms of legality, or ethics?”
These are just some of the unanswered questions after the devastating blasts across Lebanon.
Others, Jon says, include: “ Did they have people in the factory where the pagers were being made?
“Did they intercept the whole shipment and put in some explosives fiddled with the software so that they could trigger an explosion at any moment”
There are all those questions that the military world is “absolutely fascinated by”, Jon adds.
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