Hezbollah Attack on Israel through Pagers

• On September 17, Hezbollah’s pagers detonated across Lebanon, killing at least nine people and injuring several thousands.
• The attack was condemned as an “Israeli aggression” by Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary.
• The attack occurred largely in southern Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold.
• The low-tech gadgets used by the perpetrator were pagers, communication devices that operate using radio signals.
• Pagers are less susceptible to high-tech surveillance techniques and don’t have GPS or internet connectivity, making them less susceptible to location tracking and hacking.
• Pagers are ideal for sending short, encrypted, or coded messages in sensitive situations.
• The risk of being detected is lower with one-way pagers as the device does not transmit a response.
• Pagers can be manipulated to include circuits that trigger a signal when a specific message is received, which are used in covert operations to activate explosives or send alerts without raising immediate suspicion.
• Hezbollah reportedly ordered thousands of pagers, which they believed could help evade Israeli tracking systems.
• Experts are hypothesising various ways the attack could have been planned and executed, but there is no conclusive evidence yet.
• The Israelis controlled the sale through their front company, selling pagers to Hezbollah, and possibly modified them to have explosives in them.
• The entire operation was a sophisticated supply chain manipulation, leveraging Israel’s control over the sale and distribution of the devices to Hezbollah.