By Chris Menahan – Information Liberation
Thousands of civilians were wounded and at least eight people were killed on Tuesday in Lebanon after Israel allegedly remotely triggered pagers to explode throughout the country.
From Reuters, “Pager explosions kill Hezbollah fighters, wound thousands in Lebanon”:
At least eight people were killed and 2,750 others including Hezbollah fighters, medics and Iran’s envoy to Beirut were wounded on Tuesday when the pagers they use to communicate exploded across Lebanon, security sources and the Lebanese health minister said.
Lebanon’s information minister Ziad Makary said the government condemned the detonation of the pagers as an “Israeli aggression”. Hezbollah also blamed Israel for the pager blasts and said it would receive “its fair punishment”.
The Israeli military declined to comment on Reuters enquiries about the detonations.
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 conflict with Israel.
Edward Snowden said the attack was “indistinguishable from terrorism.”
Videos shared on social media show hospitals filled with bloodied injured children and adults.
Jewish activists celebrated the attack on X:
The pagers are generally kept in their pockets.
This means Israel is literally blowing off Hezbollah testicles all across Lebanon today. Hundreds of them.
Well deserved.
— ♛ ✡︎ (@NiohBerg) September 17, 2024
The American University of Beirut Medical Center replaced all their pagers three weeks ago, prompting many to suspect they were tipped off to the attack directly or indirectly.
The American University of Beirut Medical Center confirmed the swap on X but categorically denied they were involved in any conspiracy:
At a crucial time when AUBMC physicians, nurses, and staff have been fully mobilized to deal with the aftermath of today’s injuries, several malicious social media outlets have started spreading rumors and conspiracy theories about the types of communications systems AUB has in place, attempting to link AUB to this tragic event. The university categorically denies these baseless allegations.
Following are the facts. Our paging system infrastructure was upgraded in April 2024. The Go-Live for switching to the new system took place on August 29, 2024. The scope of this upgrade was to enhance emergency and code communication, as several devices and systems had become obsolete.
The American University of Beirut Medical Center has received over 160 seriously injured individuals over the last three hours, with more to come. Our full focus must be on saving lives and caring for the wounded to the best of our ability. Rather than waste time spreading baseless rumors, we urge all to rally to support AUBMC and the heroic but overwhelmed medical system in Lebanon.
It’s not clear yet whether there were explosives inside the pagers or whether they were somehow hacked to overheat the batteries.
Iranian state TV is claiming some people noticed the pagers heating up before the attack, suggesting the latter.
UPDATE:
“A Lebanese security source tells Al Jazeera that the Hezbollah pagers that exploded earlier today were imported to Lebanon five months ago,” the Times of Israel’s Emanuel Fabian said on X. “The report says that the communication devices were rigged with up to 20 grams of explosive material.”
“A separate report by the UAE-based Sky News Arabia claims that the Mossad placed PETN, a powerful explosive material, on the batteries of the pagers and detonated them by raising the temperature,” he added.