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jimu news reporter li lili

intern fu bin

on the afternoon of september 17, local time, pager explosions occurred in many places in lebanon, killing at least 9 people and injuring about 3,000 people. in the era of smartphones, why is hezbollah still using pagers in lebanon? why are the casualties caused by small pagers so serious?

on september 17, in beirut, lebanon, people donated blood for the injured in the paging device explosion (source: xinhua news agency)

pagers are widely used, one-way communication, and cannot be located.

according to cctv news, multiple security sources said that the pager that exploded was newly purchased by hezbollah in recent months. the lebanese ministry of public health issued a statement on the 17th, requiring all people carrying pagers to throw them away immediately.

shi hong, executive editor of "shipborne weapons", told jimu news that although pagers may seem outdated, they are still in use in the medical and life-saving fields.

pagers are one-way communications and can only receive information but not send it. therefore, it is impossible to locate a pager. however, mobile phones are two-way communications and can be easily located when sending information. there have been many incidents of people's whereabouts being leaked due to mobile phones.

shi hong said that for hezbollah in lebanon, pagers are a better means of communication. although they are backward, they are highly confidential.

according to media reports, hezbollah members began using pagers early on because they believed that this would allow them to evade israel's tracking of their locations, and the pager that exploded was the latest model introduced by hezbollah in recent months.

the explosives in the pager exploded, causing a superimposed effect on the lithium battery

according to xinhua news agency, the sites of the pager explosions were mainly concentrated in the southern suburbs of the lebanese capital beirut, southern lebanon and the eastern bekaa valley. a series of explosions began around 15:30 local time on the 17th and lasted for about an hour.

on september 17, at a hospital in beirut, lebanon, people waited to donate blood for the injured in the paging device explosion (source: xinhua news agency)

iranian ambassador mojtaba amani was slightly injured in the pager explosion and is in good condition.

so far, the incident has caused at least 9 deaths and about 3,000 injuries.

shi hong said that public information showed that hezbollah's batch of pagers had been tampered with and should have been filled with explosives. "the israeli media said that the explosives did not exceed 20 grams. the us institute for the study of war said that the explosives were between 1-2 ounces, so they weighed about one or two ounces," shi hong said. "about 10 grams of explosives can blow off a person's palm. about 50 grams of explosives can kill people at close range."

"although there are different opinions on the explosive content, these explosives are embedded in lithium batteries. when the explosives explode, the lithium batteries will also explode, which will be more powerful." shi hong introduced that the earliest pagers used no. 5 batteries, and now pagers have been upgraded to use lithium batteries and type-c interfaces. the characteristic of lithium batteries is that they are prone to explosion when overheated or overloaded.

according to reports, the explosion mainly affected the person who carried the pager and those who were close to it. most of the injured suffered injuries to their faces, eyes and limbs. more than 500 people were blinded or had eye injuries. the injured were mainly hezbollah members and their families.

shi hong believes that allowing pagers to become deadly weapons has harmed a large number of civilians and has crossed the bottom line of war.

the explosion may lead hezbollah to expand its revenge targets

shi hong said that the batch of pagers arrived five months ago and hezbollah used them for five months without finding any abnormalities, while explosives are relatively easy to detect. the fact that israel could hide explosives in such a large number of pagers is enough to show that hezbollah has been seriously infiltrated.

according to previous media reports, some hezbollah officials believe that the explosion was the "biggest security loophole" the organization had encountered in its nearly one-year conflict with israel.

in addition to exposing hezbollah's internal security, the explosion also dealt a heavy blow to hezbollah. "most of the injured are from hezbollah and their families. the outside world estimates that hezbollah's armed forces are 30,000 people. a large number of injured may cause hezbollah to temporarily lose its combat capability."

"at the same time, the psychological deterrence of hezbollah cannot be ignored," said shi hong. "since they have been able to tamper with a large number of pagers, then are our daily food and water sources also likely to be unsafe?"

the explosion of the pager will inevitably lead to retaliation from hezbollah. since this move has affected civilians, shi hong analyzed that hezbollah previously mainly attacked military targets in northern israel and border areas, and it is not ruled out that hezbollah will include civilian targets in its attack range in the future.

according to xinhua news agency, after the explosion, lebanon's hezbollah accused israel of being responsible for the incident and said that israel would be "fairly punished."

among those killed in the explosion was the son of a hezbollah member of the lebanese parliament. hussein khalil, a senior hezbollah official, expressed condolences to the member, saying that "the target of this attack was not one, two or three people, but the entire country."

israel did not respond to the lebanese government and hezbollah's claims. according to an israeli military spokesman, israeli chief of staff hezi halevy met with senior military officers in the evening of the 17th to assess the current situation. no policy changes were announced after the meeting that evening, but israel said it would "continue to remain vigilant."

the syrian foreign ministry issued a statement on the 18th local time, saying that israel had carried out aggression against the lebanese people and used technical means to cause bloodshed, which was unprecedented. syria strongly condemned this terrorist crime committed by israel against lebanese civilians, expressed syria's firm support for the self-defense of the lebanese people, and called on the international community to condemn this "criminal act of aggression."

this marks a major escalation in the situation between lebanon and israel

according to reference news, after the pager explosion in lebanon, tensions in the region escalated. lufthansa and air france announced on the 17th that they would suspend flights to tel aviv, tehran and beirut until the 19th.

niu xinchun, a professor at the institute of chinese arab countries of ningxia university, said in an interview with cctv news that this incident must be a major escalation of the conflict between lebanon and israel. because for hezbollah in lebanon, the losses suffered this time are very serious. in fact, the situation between lebanon and israel has been particularly tense in recent times. because israel believes that the current situation on the lebanon-israel border is unbearable for israel, israel must take action to drive hezbollah back to the north of the litani river in lebanon, but in the past 11 months, diplomatic means and military pressure have not worked, so israel has been discussing launching a full-scale war against hezbollah in lebanon in recent times. this pager incident is a further development of israel's increased military pressure on hezbollah in lebanon. the military conflict between israel and lebanon may now be in a spiral stage.

since the current round of the israeli-palestinian conflict broke out in october last year, hezbollah in lebanon has frequently attacked military targets in northern israel in support of the palestinian islamic resistance movement (hamas), and the israeli army has responded with air strikes and artillery fire. according to afp statistics, since october last year, the border exchanges of fire on the lebanese-israeli border have resulted in the deaths of 614 lebanese, including 138 civilians, and at least 24 israeli soldiers and 26 civilians.

(source: jimu news)

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