The Guardian reports,
Scores of Hezbollah members hurt in Lebanon after pagers explode
Scores of members of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, including fighters and medics,
Oh, the poor Hezbollah medics!
were seriously wounded on Tuesday when the pagers they use to communicate exploded, a security source told Reuters.
A Hezbollah official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the detonation of the pagers was the “biggest security breach” the group had been subjected to in nearly a year of war with Israel.
A Reuters journalist saw ambulances rushing through the southern suburbs of the capital, Beirut, amid widespread panic. People said explosions were taking place even 30 minutes after the initial blasts.
I feel that this development deserves to be commemorated in period style.
Edit: It is now being claimed that a ten year old girl, Fatima Jaafar Abdullah, was killed by one of the exploding pagers. If true (and despite Hezbollah, like Hamas, being inveterate liars who regularly fake the deaths of children, it might well be true that she was handling her Hezbollah father’s pager or something similar), that is tragic. But overall one of the things about this operation that fills me with admiration is that it must be one of the most precisely targeted military strikes in history. Targeted to the very hip pockets of individual terrorists. Oh, and it would have been nice if a few more of the people denouncing Israel for this had also denounced Hezbollah for firing rockets at Israel completely indiscriminately for years on end. Only a few weeks ago, twelve Israeli Druze children were “shredded to pieces” by a Hezbollah rocket while playing soccer.
I thought they had learned their lesson the last time this was done – with mobile phones, and (before that) with the grenades that went off as soon as the pin was pulled.
But, no, they fell for it again.
They keep buying cheap kit – which has a nasty surprise for them.
“What is cheap is dear”.
Reminiscent of the excellent first Kingsmen movie.
Pagers are so mid-1990s New Labour (the UK media boasting about how Labour MPs slavishly followed the Party line delivered to them by pagers in Blair’s early years as Party Leader).
Perhaps our Overseas Aid budget will be used by our exciting new government to improve safety for these gentlemen after this unfortunate incident, doubtless due to old and dodgy batteries malfunctioning in one immense cluster under the strain of so many messages reminding them of the struggle for peace.
“Pagers are so mid-1990s”
…but still widely used by our glorious NHS, of course – along with FAX machines.
“Candygram for Mongo”.
I remember using a pager in 1992. The article also reminds me of how old I am.
I’m hoping this isn’t something someone could do to mobile phones?
Martin, I’m no expert but from what I have read, what probably happened was that the Israelis compromised Hezbollah’s supply chain somehow and physically inserted explosives into the pagers before letting them be sold or transported on.
This is far more serious and puzzling than I thought. It is headline news on Swedish TV tonight. The talking head suggests 8 to 20 grammes of explosive may have been inserted in pagers. Several dead and thousands injured.
Surely Hezbollah tests its kit routinely and checks for anything physical or otherwise to ensure its integrity? A sniffer dog and weighing come to mind as low-tech starts.
I note that the EU is making removable batteries in mobiles etc. mandatory, probably making this easier with mobiles in future?
Samzdata needs a “like” or a “ha ha!” button.
Just saw a great meme: ‘From the river to the sea, now you must sit down to pee’ 🤣
Unsurprisingly, my first thought was that pagers are so yesterday! Well it’s good to see an old technology go out with a bang!
My second was, “Mossad – You Magnificent Bastards!“. I mean the Hellfire R9X is cool but…
There a few good videos of the R9X on Youtube. And yes, it can chop to pieces a designated individual in a moving car from 10 km away.
Paul, my vague understanding was that Hezbollah abandoned mobile phone use in favour of pagers because of perceived dangers. Possibly just being able to track them.
Peter MacFarlane,
My Dad recently had to have medical records and X-Rays sent from one hospital to another by motorbike courier. The NHS likes to keep on the leading edge… Until last year it was carrier pigeons.
Julia,
I did see a picture on the Daily Fail of someone with a very bloody “gentleman’s area”. Not of course that Hezbollah are gentlemen anyway but it’s good to see this actuated biologically. Not that one’s genitals have anything to do with gender, obviously 😉
Mr Ed:
Easier to insert remote-controlled bombs, but also easier to remove them. Plus, if you are paranoid and don’t want to be tracked, you can remove the battery.
I am never going to get another Chinese phone. Actually, any Chinese tech should be viewed with more suspicion, now.
It’s more than that even. This event provided Mossad with a data base and map of the entire terrorist network.
https://x.com/BenTelAviv/status/1836094065970233684
“Fatima, be a good Muslim wife – walk ten paces behind me… and hold my pager…”
—————-
To answer Martin’s question: they moved (back) to pagers after Israel hacked and booby-trapped their cellphones.
Mr. Ed – no sniffer dogs – dogs are unclean animals in Islam
The exploding pagers were made by ACME.
Next on the agenda: Hezbollah operatives crushed by falling anvils.*
*See Warner Bros. Wile E. Coyote cartoons if you don’t get these references.
Have there been any reports of bbc correspondents, particularly those working for their Arabic service, being unexpectedly temporarily unavailable? I have similar concerns about UNRWA workers.
Have there been any reports of bbc correspondents, particularly those working for their Arabic service, being unexpectedly temporarily unavailable? I have similar concerns about UNRWA workers.
I must confess to feeling a certain amount of schadenfreude about the impact of this clever piece of Mossad activity right now.
Exasperated,
I hadn’t thought of that! Good point.
Ben David – correct Sir.
Via a back-channel, this multi-level operation is truly a gift that keeps on giving. It’s now reported that senior Hezbollah members and their fellow travellers who had these pagers and PTTs and did NOT have them explode, are now being cast under suspicion as being aligned with the Mossad.
It’s a magnificent effort, a stunningly-elegant example of lateral warfare. I detect a common thread in many of these operations, from the PLC hack that ruined Iran nuclear programme, to hotel-room and pay-phone bombs, and so on. A willingness to do an unimaginably-deep technology dive, plan and execute something that would seem to be impossibly-hazardous and -unrealistic, and a willingness to play the long game – months and even years before striking at the exact-right moment. It’s so specifically-similar in thinking that I wonder whether these actions are all the product of a single mind. Churchill had the XX Committee for this sort of thing, I wonder whether the Mossad has an XX individual.
llater,
llamas
Next week: all Hezby microwaves will explode simultaneously.
(Those poor guys are going to be huddled on their floors quivering in fear – they can’t do anything, or pick up anything, or call anyone, or use their electric toothbrushes or shavers, or . . . Brilliant.)
However, I still see no real policy towards Gaza and other matters.
All there is is fire-fighting – rather than a long term plan for what to do.
At least we can stop blaming Lithium batteries! Those must have been test runs.
Well Hezbollah might now realise they have a serious problem. They are fighting Israel not just with rockets but also in a very one-sided battle of wits.
I think that the long-term plan is the downfall of the Iranian regime which will take away a lot of the support for Hizbollah and Hamas, and keep the Syrian civil war going so that both sides weaken the other and keep the pressure off Israel. Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are not current threats, and Lebanon with a weakened Hizbollah would not be a threat either.
Mr Ed – that may indeed be the plan, but that is an incomplete plan because it overlooks the basic nature of Islam.
Yes the Islamic Republic of Iran regime is terrible and getting rid of it would be a Good Thing (TM), but Islam itself would still remain – and not just in the Middle East.