Updated September 18, 2024 at 01:03 AM ET
Electronic pagers belonging to members of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah exploded simultaneously on Tuesday afternoon, killing at least nine people and wounding around 2,800 across the Middle East nation. The method of attack was highly unusual, if not unprecedented, and raised the specter of an escalation in the Israel-Hezbollah fighting.
Lebanese government officials and Hezbollah blamed Israel. "After examining all the facts, available data and information about the heinous attack that took place this afternoon, we hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression," Hezbollah said in a statement.
Israel's military declined to comment. However, in Washington, one U.S. official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, told NPR that Israel informed the U.S. that it was responsible. Israel provided the information after the attack was over. Israel's security forces have a history of carrying out tech-related attacks, such as exploding cellphones.
Many of the explosions rocked the southern suburbs of Beirut, the main Hezbollah stronghold. Videos on social media show a number of men going about daily business when they are suddenly knocked to the ground by the force of the exploding pagers. Bystanders were also injured.
Ambulances rushed wounded individuals to hospitals, where they soon overwhelmed emergency rooms. Lebanon's Ministry of Public Health declared a medical emergency, and health officials said at least 200 of the wounded were seriously injured. While the largest number of casualties was in Beirut, many people were also wounded in the country's north and south.
Hezbollah thought pagers would be more secure
There was no immediate word on how such an attack was planned and executed.
In one widely circulated but unverified video, a man appears to check his pager just before it goes off, suggesting the explosion may have been triggered by an incoming message.
Online, some speculated that the batteries could have been made to somehow overheat. But Trevor Ball, a former explosive ordnance disposal technician for the U.S. Army, said he believes that explosives must have been planted in the pagers.
“Based off the videos and pictures of the pagers, it appears that the pagers had a small amount of high explosives that were remotely initiated,” Ball told NPR in a message. “The widespread nature of the pagers exploding indicates that the supply chain of the pagers was compromised at some point.”
Hezbollah members began carrying pagers after heavy fighting erupted with Israel almost a year ago. Hezbollah knows that Israel's security services are often able to hack into phone networks, and the group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, told members in a February speech to get rid of their phones. The group thought pagers would provide a more secure way to communicate.
Reports from Lebanon said Hezbollah recently received a new batch of imported pagers, which were being used to share information about possible Israeli drone strikes and other attacks.
After the explosions, which took place around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Ministry of Public Health told "all citizens who own wireless communication devices stay away from them." Hezbollah told all its members who recently received new pagers to throw them away.
Lebanon's health minister, Firass Abiad, said Tuesday evening that at least 2,800 people were injured. Most had wounds to the face, hands and midsection, he said. Various media reports in Lebanon put the death toll at nine.
Hezbollah and Israel began trading cross-border rocket and missile fire almost immediately after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel last year.
Tens of thousands of people on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border fled their homes last year and have yet to return. For much of this time, the broad consensus has been that neither Israel nor Hezbollah wants a full-scale war.
Israel has been focused on the battle in Gaza with Hamas. And Lebanon suffers from chronic political and economic problems that could become overwhelming with a war.
However, fighting has been intensifying recently, and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday that prospects for a diplomatic solution to the Israel-Hezbollah fighting were dimming.
Taiwanese company behind exploding pagers denies involvement
Hsu Ching-kuang, the founder and president of a Taiwanese wireless pager company called Gold Apollo Co. Ltd, confirmed his company’s branding was on remnants of the electronic pagers that exploded in Lebanon.
But he told NPR outside his office in northern Taiwan that it was a European company called BAC which designed and manufactured the devices. “There was nothing in those devices that we had manufactured or exported to them [BAC],” he said, noting the pagers “were entirely different” from his designs and contained a chip that that Apollo does not use.
Hsu said Gold Apollo contracted with BAC “about three years ago,” at first to sell them pagers, though later, BAC began requesting the ability to design its own devices, using its own engineers, while still using the Apollo brand. Hsu did not disclose where BAC or its manufacturers are located but said they paid Apollo Gold from a Middle Eastern bank account.
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