At least eight individuals lost their lives, and close to 3,000 were injured when pagers belonging to Hezbollah members, including fighters and medical personnel, exploded simultaneously throughout Lebanon.
Here’s what we currently know about the pager explosions.
WHEN AND WHERE DID THE BLASTS TAKE PLACE?
The explosions began at approximately 3:30 pm local time in Lebanon, occurring in the southern region of the country, the southern suburbs of Beirut known as Dahiyeh, and the eastern Bekaa Valley – all areas considered Hezbollah strongholds.
The explosions persisted for nearly an hour, with witnesses from Reuters and residents of Dahiyeh noting that the blasts were still audible at around 4:30 pm local time.
Security sources and video footage examined by Reuters suggest that some of the explosions happened after the pagers went off, leading the fighters to touch or lift them to their faces to view the screen.
HOW BIG WERE THE EXPLOSIONS?
The explosions were relatively localized, as seen in footage reviewed by Reuters.
In two separate CCTV clips from supermarkets, the blasts seemed only to injure the individual wearing the pager or those near it.
Videos filmed at hospitals and posted on social media seemed to reveal people with various types of injuries, including facial wounds, missing fingers, and severe damage to the hip, where the pager may have been worn. The explosions didn’t seem to cause significant destruction or ignite any fires.
WHAT TYPE OF PAGER EXPLODED?
Photos of damaged pagers reviewed by Reuters displayed a design and labels on the back that matched those typically produced by Gold Apollo, a pager manufacturer based in Taiwan.
The company did not promptly respond to Reuters’ inquiries, and Hezbollah also did not provide answers regarding the brand of the pagers.
Earlier this year, two sources familiar with the group’s activities informed Reuters that Hezbollah fighters had started using pagers as a low-tech way to evade Israeli tracking.
According to three security sources, the exploded pagers were the newest model introduced by Hezbollah in recent months.
WHAT CAUSED THE PAGERS TO EXPLODE?
Hezbollah announced that it was conducting a “security and scientific investigation” to determine the cause of the explosions.
Diplomatic and security sources suggested that overheating batteries could have triggered the blasts. While experts were puzzled by the incidents, several told Reuters they doubted that the battery alone would be sufficient to cause such explosions.
Paul Christensen, a specialist in lithium-ion battery safety at Newcastle University, noted that the extent of the damage from the pager explosions didn’t align with typical cases of battery failure.
“We’re talking about a small battery catching fire, not a deadly explosion. I’d need more information about the battery’s energy density, but my gut feeling is that this scenario is highly improbable,” he said.
SMEX, a Lebanese digital rights group, told Reuters that Israel may have exploited a vulnerability in the device to cause it to explode.
They suggested the pagers could have been intercepted and either electronically tampered with or implanted with an explosive device.
According to past reports in the book Rise and Kill First, Israeli intelligence has previously used explosives in personal phones to target adversaries.
Hackers have also shown the ability to inject malicious code into devices, causing them to overheat and sometimes explode.
WHAT HAVE THE AUTHORITIES SAID ABOUT THE BLASTS?
Lebanon’s foreign ministry labeled the explosions as an “Israeli cyber attack,” though it did not elaborate on how this conclusion was drawn.
The country’s information minister described the incident as a violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty. When asked by Reuters, the Israeli military declined to comment on the pager explosions.
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