Beirut : On Tuesday and Wednesday, thousands of Hezbollah members detonated pagers and walkie-talkies around Lebanon, killing at least 32 people and wounding thousands more. This incident has spawned a number of speculations regarding how these devices were sabotaged. While the precise mechanism causing the explosions is still being explored, a few possibilities have arisen.
Much of the argument revolves around the claim that the pagers were tampered with, leading their batteries to overheat and explode. According to Lebanese Telecommunications Minister Johnny Corm, the overheating indicated “foul play”. However, cybersecurity expert Robert Graham swiftly disregarded this hypothesis, claiming that making batteries do more than burn is unrealistic. Instead, he proposed the far more plausible scenario that someone bribed the factories involved to incorporate explosives into the gadgets, Bloomberg reported.
What took place
The first round of explosives came on Tuesday, when pagers used by the Iran-backed terror group went off across Lebanon. Hospitals were rapidly swamped by casualties, prompting the installation of a field hospital in Tyre. The blasts occurred shortly after Israel declared a strategic expansion of its military operations against Hezbollah. On Wednesday, a second wave of explosives involving Hezbollah walkie-talkies caused even more chaos.
Theory 1: Explosives placed in devices.
According to Lebanese security officials and Reuters reports, a new batch of 5,000 pagers ordered by Hezbollah from Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo was compromised. The Israeli espionage intelligence agency Mossad is suspected of inserting tiny explosive explosives into these devices. The explosives, which were apparently as little as 3 grams, were hidden in such a way that Hezbollah did not see them for months. The explosive mechanism is thought to be activated remotely via a coded message relayed to pagers. According to specialists, ordinary scanners could not detect these explosives.
The attack on the walkie-talk which are thought to have been acquired at the same time, has been linked to a similar sabotage operation. These gadgets, branded as ICOM and apparently manufactured in Japan, are likely to have been altered with during production, potentially by Mossad. The walkie-talkie explosions are less well-documented, but it’s possible that the same coded message mechanism was used to activate the embedded explosives.
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Theory 2: The supply chain has been disrupted
Another theory holds that the supply chain has been tampered with. Security analysts believe Israeli intelligence may have obtained the devices before they reached Hezbollah. The pagers were identified as Gold Apollo AR-924 models, however additional inquiry found that they were manufactured by BAC Consulting in Hungary, a business licensed to use the Gold Apollo trademark. This raises the probability that the sabotage occurred during the manufacturing or distribution stages, allowing Israel to install explosives without discovery.
Hezbollah is now claiming
Hezbollah is now claiming that the devices were part of a recently imported shipment, meaning that the manipulation occurred before the pagers arrived in Lebanon.
Theory 3: Remote activation by message
Another popular idea holds that the pagers and walkie-talkies were detonated remotely by an electronic signal or radio frequency, rather than physically. Mark Montgomery, a retired admiral and chief executive of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, speculated that those explosions were generated by a radio frequency or electronic signal. “I think it was an intentional physical fault enabled by cyber or a radio frequencies signal,” he told Bloomberg on Monday.
According to the New York Times, the detonation appeared to be caused by a coded message. The pagers simultaneously received what looked to be an internal communication from Hezbollah leadership, which, when opened, activated the explosives concealed within the devices. Videos circulating on social media allegedly show people gazing at their pagers just before the blasts occurred.
Who is to blame?
Hezbollah has blamed Israeli for the strike and promised vengeance. The timing of the explosions, which came just after Israel announced prolonged military activities along the Lebanon border, has fueled belief that Mossad was responsible. However, Israel has not issued an official statement on the topic. Further inquiry is ongoing.
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