Several people were killed and thousands of Hezbollah members seriously injured on Tuesday in southern Lebanon and near the capital, in the Dahiyeh suburb of Beirut, when messaging devices, known as pagers, exploded after receiving alerts, Reuters reported and Lebanese security officials confirmed. These devices are small receivers that receive a message when their owners are requested by the person trying to contact them and do not depend on the mobile network, a circumstance for which they are used in armed conflicts and by clandestine organizations to avoid computer manipulation.
The news agency was able to witness the injuries inflicted on a dozen suspected Shiite guerrillas, including the Iranian ambassador, Mojtaba Amani, according to the Mehr News service. Lebanese security sources attribute the attack to Israel and believe that it was made possible by the interference of individual communication systems, although they have not detailed the procedure.
The same sources say that before the explosions, the devices received a message alert that was kept on for several seconds to ensure that the recipient was checking the content. Hezbollah members consider the attack to be the “biggest security breach” suffered by the group since the beginning of the war in the region.
In an official statement, Lebanese government sources have detailed that the attack occurred at approximately 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, September 17, 2024, when “several message receiving devices, known as pagers, belonging to staff members working in Hezbollah units and institutions exploded.” “Hezbollah’s specialized scientific and security teams are conducting a large-scale investigation to uncover the reasons behind these simultaneous explosions,” which the statement itself recognizes as “mysterious.”
Marc Rivero, head of research at security firm Kasperskyexplained that the attack is possible and that the batteries of electronic devices can cause damage. Rivero explains that, although it would be plausible that the interference had caused a malfunction in the energy storage systems to cause the explosion, he believes that the most logical theory is that it is “an attack on the supply chain.” In this regard, he explains: “The device may have been manipulated at the source, before its distribution among users, and some type of explosive charge may have been introduced that, through specific programming and remotely, causes explosions.”
This is the most logical explanation given the damage caused, as battery explosions in such small devices have very low damaging potential, the expert adds.
According to Rivero’s hypothesis, the charges were first introduced into the devices and programmed to explode using a predetermined code or at a specific time. Both theories are possible, since the victims have stated that they received a call prior to the explosion and that they all occurred simultaneously.
David Marugán, a consultant specialising in security and radio communications, also points to the possibility of prior physical manipulation of the devices, since “the damage observed is very significant and appears, at first glance, to be a little different from that caused by lithium batteries. In no case is this possible if the batteries are alkaline, such as those used in old pagers, for example.”
Marugán explains that this type of search is used by clandestine organisations to bypass the usual mobile network, a common target of cyber attacks.
Pagers are devices that were very popular in the nineties, before the massive arrival of mobile phones. They allow you to receive alert messages or short texts and, in certain cases, send them. Only some of the current models allow message encryption.
David Marugan recalls a similar incident to Tuesday’s: the death of Yehie Ayashh in Gaza in January 1996. As Hamas’s chief bombmaker, he was nicknamed The Engineer. Israel got a friend to give him a pre-rigged mobile phone that was detonated remotely, killing him instantly.
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