In Lebanon and Syria, pagers used by Hezbollah militants went off simultaneously, killing 9 people. Also, more than 2800 people were injured, including Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani. This attack by Israel has caused great shocks. Let’s take a look at how this attack was carried out simultaneously.
On October 7, Hamas launched missile attacks on Israel. Following this, the Israel-Hamas war began. Following this, the Hezbollah armed group in support of Hamas continued to launch missile attacks on Israel.
As the Israel-Hamas war escalates, pager blast attacks have been carried out targeting Hezbollah militants.
Photos and videos of pager blasts in Beirut’s southern suburbs spread quickly on social media and news media.
CCTV footage shows a handheld device exploding near a grocery cashier while paying, a pager exploding in front of a fruit stall in the market, and blood splattered on the roads.
Reports say that people are lying on the pavements with disfigured faces and injuries on their hands and feet, and hospitals are overflowing.
It was only in 1959 that Motorola coined the word ‘pager’ when it began manufacturing personal radio communications in walkie-talkie and car radio technology. In 1994, at least 61 million pagers were in circulation worldwide.
Even after the advent of smart phones, pagers are still widely used in some key sectors such as hospitals.
Six months ago, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah called on Hezbollah members in southern Lebanon to use pagers instead of mobile phones.
Following this, after the start of the Gaza war, Hizbullah organizations have been using pagers as their means of communication, avoiding mobile phones.
In this case, it is said that the blasting of the pagers may have taken place through digital hacking and explosives may have been added to the pagers to detonate them.
Five months ago Hezbollah decided to buy 5,000 pagers for their needs. Hezbollah purchased 5000 AP924 model pagers from Gold Apollo in Taiwan.
These pagers were brought to Lebanon between April and May. These pagers were found to contain small amounts of high-powered explosives.
Meanwhile, Gold Apollo founder Hsu Ching-kuang has denied that his company made the pagers used in the pager blasts in Lebanon.
However, at the site of the pager explosion, pagers identified as model AP924 were found to be consistent with Gold Apollo’s pagers and bearing the company’s sticker.
All the pagers used by Hezbollah members in various locations in Lebanon and Syria were rigged with explosives and detonated all the pagers at once, according to military experts.
Hezbollah has accused Israel of a cowardly attack on the Pager explosion and has warned that Israel will be retaliated against.
The Lebanese government, which has called it an attack on security and sovereignty, has announced a high-level investigation into the incident.
But regarding the pager explosion, the US has explained that the Israeli army, while maintaining peace, had nothing to do with the incident.
Already in 1996, the killing of a prominent Hamas militant with explosives hidden inside his mobile phone demonstrated Israel’s intelligence and military prowess.
Now, a pager bombing attack targeting Hezbollah is a world first that has international intelligence agencies and cyber security experts on edge.
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