On the afternoon of September 17, 2024, local time, a series of pager (BP machine) explosions occurred in multiple locations across Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, as well as in the southeastern and northeastern parts of the country. Hezbollah, a Lebanese political and military group, swiftly reported on its Telegram channel that the explosions took place around 3:30 pm local time, impacting “staff members” across various Hezbollah institutions, with “a significant number” of casualties. By 4:00 pm on September 18th, The Times of Israel cited data from Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health, which confirmed 11 fatalities and approximately 4,000 injuries, including around 500 cases of blindness. For years, Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, had been advocating for the organization to transition away from mobile phones to pagers for security reasons, but this measure did not prevent them from falling into a trap that Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad, had been meticulously planning for quite some time.
On the surface, the pager explosions appeared to be a result of cyber-attacks on electronic devices, but in reality, it indicated a far more serious issue, pointing to systemic security flaws in the entire pager supply chain. The destructive power of a simple battery malfunction would be insufficient to cause such damage, leading to the conclusion that micro-explosives had been deliberately installed within the devices. Combining an explosive device with a communication tool and setting it off remotely would require a premeditated and covert modification during the manufacturing process, which, for Israel’s intelligence apparatus, would not be an unsurmountable task. The extent to which BAC, the pager distributor, was involved, and whether it had any illicit dealings with terrorists, will require thorough and transparent explanations.
The pager explosion in Lebanon cannot be dismissed as a mere technological glitch or a coincidence. The majority of the injured were members of Hezbollah’s militia, indicating that the attack was aimed directly at this faction. This incident represents a significant blow to Hezbollah’s armed wing, reflecting the ongoing rivalry between Hezbollah and Israel’s Mossad.