All you need to know about the exploding pagers in Lebanon

A photo taken on September 18, 2024, in Beirut's southern suburbs shows the remains of exploded pagers on display at an undisclosed location. Image: AFP

On September 17, around 3.30 pm, (12.30 pm GMT), Lebanon and parts of Syria heard the noise of another blast, multiple times in this instance. Hundreds of pagers associated with the armed group Hezbollah detonated, resulting in at least 12 deaths and approximately 2,750 injuries, according to Al Jazeera.

The pagers, which were meant to send Hezbollah operatives a message from their leadership, beeped as planned, but were followed by explosions, and cries of pain and panic on the streets, and in shops and homes throughout Lebanon. Fuelled by only a few ounces of explosive material hidden within the devices, the blasts sent men flying off motorcycles and crashing into walls, as per witnesses and video footage, according to The New York Times. 

On the following day, September 18, 20 more people, including four children, lost their lives and hundreds were injured when walkie-talkies in Lebanon inexplicably exploded.

According to current and former defence and intelligence officials, who were briefed on the incident and who spoke to The New York Times, on condition of anonymity claim that the Israelis orchestrated it, describing the operation as intricate and planned over an extended period. Israel has not confirmed or denied involvement in the explosions. 

The Israel-Palestine conflict revolves around land that both claim authority and control over. Both Jews and Arab Muslims have been connected to it for millennia, but the current political troubles started in the early 20th century, resulting in numerous violent conflicts, which impacted other countries and killed several thousands. The current situation follows months of intense fighting between Hamas and Israel, after the former launched an attack on the latter on October 7, 2023, killing more than 1,400 Israelis and taking more than 240 hostages. Israel retaliated with extensive airstrikes on the Gaza Strip and a ground invasion, resulting in more than 33,000 Palestinians losing their lives.

Pagers: How did they explode and where were they made?

A Lebanese security source told Reuters that the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, had planted explosives in 5,000 pagers ordered by Hezbollah months prior to the blasts. According to these sources, a code was sent to 3,000 of the pagers at the same time, activating the explosions, as per Al Jazeera.

Although the precise mechanism behind the pager explosions remains uncertain, some experts suggest that the pagers' radio system may have been hacked, potentially using a modified code. It’s also possible that the batteries were triggered to overheat, resulting in a phenomenon known as thermal runaway, which could have caused the batteries to explode.

The remains of the exploded pagers have been traced back to Gold Apollo, a Taiwanese manufacturer, with their AR-924 model identified. On Wednesday, the company issued a statement, denying that it produced pagers for Hezbollah, explaining that only its logo was printed on the devices. It clarified that the pagers were manufactured by a Hungarian company called BAC under a licensing agreement. According to Al Jazeera, current evidence indicates that Hezbollah obtained these pagers around February after an order from the group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, to members to stop using cellphones, as they could be easily intercepted by Israeli intelligence.

Other covert operations in the past

In the past many years since this deadly war erupted, many attempts have been made to severely injure or kill either important leaders or common citizens, in order to prove dominance in the war. Some of these, as per NDTV, include the detonation of a phone to kill a master bombmaker from Hamas, after tricking him to get to the phone; the killing of a Hamas arms producer by men posing as tennis-playing tourists; a number of explosions in traffic, by motorcycles which had been attached with magnetised bombs, among other such killings.