international identification bureau: thousands of people killed and injured! pagers and walkie-talkies turned into bombs, new "means of war" emerge?
2024-09-19
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this article is reproduced from [china news network];
china news service, september 19 (zheng yuntian) "smoke came out of people's pockets, and then small explosions like fireworks and gunshots were heard." on the 17th local time, pager explosions occurred across lebanon, killing 12 people and injuring about 2,800 people.
the very next day, the country saw another wave of large-scale communications equipment explosions - walkie-talkies exploded in multiple areas, killing 20 people and injuring at least 450.
why did pagers and walkie-talkies suddenly become "deadly bombs"? does this mean that a new "means of war" has emerged?
the suspicion of these two incidents once again points to israel, which again did not comment. will a "full-scale war" break out between hezbollah in lebanon and israel? will tensions in the middle east escalate further?
how does a pager become a bomb?
a pager is a wireless telecommunications device that receives and displays information. many hezbollah members use pagers as a means of communication in an attempt to avoid israel's location tracking.
but it was this security measure, which was considered confidential, that turned out to be a deadly bomb.
there are two different accounts of how the attack was carried out.
the first theory is far-fetched, suggesting that the explosion was caused by israel using remote control technology to detonate the battery.
some media analysis believes that the explosion was caused by the battery of the pager remotely controlled by israel. the wall street journal quoted an anonymous hezbollah member as saying that some people first felt the pager getting hot and threw it away before the explosion.
it is speculated that the attacker may have used hacking software to cause the pager to heat up and cause an explosion.
the second theory is different from the previous one, claiming that the attack was mainly carried out by special agents.
according to cnn, david kennedy, a former intelligence analyst for the national security agency, said that based on analysis of videos on social media, the explosion was too severe to have been detonated by a remote hacker attack because lithium batteries are not that powerful.
"it is more likely that israel has planted people within hezbollah and that the pagers were planted with explosives that would explode when a specific message was received," said david kennedy.
"the complexity required to pull this off was incredible, it required the integration of many different intelligence and operatives. intercepting the supply chain of pagers and modifying them to plant bombs. people were the key to this operation," added david kennedy.
the new york times quoted u.s. officials familiar with the operation as saying that the pagers were tampered with before they arrived in lebanon. a small amount of explosive components were placed next to the battery, and a switch that could remotely detonate the explosives was implanted.
regarding the walkie-talkie explosion, reuters quoted a security source as saying that hezbollah purchased the walkie-talkies five months ago, around the same time as it purchased the pagers. this shows that the attackers had been preparing for quite a long time.
it is worth noting that israel has never used this method in its attack on gaza. some analysts believe that hamas is more vigilant than hezbollah.
“they cannot use the same method in gaza because hamas is more defensive than hezbollah and they are very good at telecommunications,” hamza attar of king’s college london said, according to al jazeera.
"they (hamas) don't use telephones or mobile phones, they have their own network, internet and communications," attar said.
'new focus of conflict'
after the two shocking large-scale explosions, lebanon's hezbollah accused israel of being the "mastermind", saying it was responsible for the pager explosions across lebanon and that israel would be "fairly punished."
as usual, israel did not comment on the incident or reveal how it managed to make so many pagers explode at the same time.
why is israel suspected?
since the outbreak of a new round of the israeli-palestinian conflict in october 2023, hezbollah has been firing on northern israel in support of hamas, which is fighting israel in the gaza strip, and more than 60,000 israelis have evacuated the northern region.
the israeli authorities regard the issue of the northern border and hezbollah as a new focus of conflict.
"on the issue of lebanon and the north, the israeli government believes that action needs to be taken," a source familiar with israeli thinking said, according to the washington post.
the source also pointed out that the israeli cabinet added a new goal to its war list on the 16th: to allow israelis to return to their homes near the lebanese border.
the pager explosion in lebanon came a day after israeli leaders warned that they were considering stepping up military action against hezbollah. israeli defense minister yoav galant said during a meeting with u.s. envoy amos hochstein that the time for diplomatic engagement with hezbollah had passed and military force would be the focus.
some us media analysts believe that israel's use of pager bombs to attack hezbollah will help its large-scale ground offensive, because the attack will bring chaos to hezbollah's communication network and cut off the connection between some hezbollah members.
however, some analysts believe that the israeli army has been fighting in gaza for nearly a year and is exhausted, while hezbollah's armed forces are more elite than hamas. israel cannot afford the losses caused by a large-scale ground attack on hezbollah, so they use espionage and air strikes to weaken hezbollah and put pressure on iran in an attempt to force the other side to retreat without launching a ground attack.
according to singapore's lianhe zaobao, experts remain skeptical about the possibility of a full-scale war between israel and hezbollah. the united states has been trying to prevent such a war from happening and believes that neither side wants a war.
after the two waves of explosions, the white house said on the 18th that it did not want to see any form of escalation in the situation in the middle east. the us also stressed that it "did not participate in any way" in the explosions in lebanon on the 17th and 18th.
cnn pointed out that israel may have concluded that hezbollah does not want to fight, so it can provoke repeatedly, but perhaps this judgment will lead to the expansion of the conflict. when hezbollah determines that israel has no intention of dialogue at all, they will be forced to take the "most violent action." (end)
