Hezbollah Pager Bombing: A Pre-Meditated Operation

A recent video shared online shows the moment a pager exploded, leaving a man in white with a blue baseball cap falling to the ground. Photo/Sputnik Arabic (@sputnik_ar)

How the Attack Was Accomplished

Hundreds of pagers carried by members of the militant group Hezbollah exploded almost simultaneously in Lebanon and Syria, sparking concerns about the premeditated nature of the operation. According to security experts, the attack was likely carried out by tampering with the pagers before they were delivered to Hezbollah personnel.

“It is very likely that the pagers were modified before they were shipped,” said Baptiste Robert, chief executive of French open-source intelligence firm Predicta Lab. “The fact that there were no fires or smoke tells us that this was not a slow failure of the batteries.”

Alternative Theories

Another theory suggests that a cyberattack or malware could have caused the pager batteries to overheat. However, Michael Horowitz, head of intelligence at Le Beck International, a Bahrain-based security and risk management company, believes this is less likely because “some of them could cause fires.”

Hezbollah’s Use of Pagers

Hezbollah operatives use pagers rather than cell phones or smartphones because they believe they are less easily hacked or tracked. The group received a new batch of pagers “in recent days,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

Planning the Attack

According to experts, planning an attack of this magnitude would take a long time. The exact details are still unclear, but experts estimate the time frame to be anywhere from a few months to two years.

Aftermath of the Attack

The bombing killed at least nine people, including an eight-year-old girl, and injured about 2,700 people. Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary blamed Israel for the attack, adding that Israel would be “fairly punished” for the incident.