Pagers used by members of the militant group Hezbollah exploded simultaneously Monday afternoon in hundreds of places across Lebanon and Syria. The Hezbollah, which had ordered the use of pagers – a low-end wireless communication device – instead of cell phones to prevent tracking by Israel, has blamed Israel for the "cyber attack". At least nine people died, including a 9-year-old girl, and hundreds were injured.
Amid the never-seen-before explosions, several questions have arisen, with no clear-cut answers. Although Lebanon's foreign ministry called the explosions an "Israeli cyber attack," they did not provide any further explanation on how they determined it. Israel, meanwhile, has not responded yet to any media requests for comments.
Reuters reported that the pagers that exploded were recently acquired by Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, after it asked its members to stop using cell phones amid fears of being tracked by Israeli intelligence. The Associated Press reported citing an Hezbollah official speaking on condition of anonymity that the pagers were manufactured by a brand that the group had not used before. However, the group refused to disclose the details of the manufacturer details despite a request sent by Reuters, the agency reported.
Reuters reported that based on the analysis of images of the destroyed pagers, they found the format and stickers consistent with pagers made by a Taiwanese manufacturer, named Gold Apollo. The company, however, is yet to confirm or deny that they made the pagers.
Amid this, a couple of theories behind how the explosion occurred have emerged. According to Alex Plitsas, a weapons expert at the Atlantic Council cited in a report by AP, the images of the explosion showed signs of detonation. “A lithium-ion battery fire is one thing, but I’ve never seen one explode like that. It looks like a small explosive charge,” Plitsas said. It indicates that if Israel is behind the explosions, as Hezbollah says, then Israel could have intercepted the shipment of the pagers and modified it before it reached Hezbollah for delivery.
The second theory centers around an electric pulse being sent from a distance which "burnt the devices and caused their explosion,” according to Yehoshua Kalisky, a scientist and senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, a Tel Aviv think tank, cited by AP. “It is not some random action; it was deliberate and known,” Kalisky suggested.