Paging Hezbollah

Israeli Terrorism by Interdiction Attack, Twice

Published: 2024-09-18

Updated 2024-09-19: Israel repeated their interdiction attack, this time having inserted explosives into walkie-talkies, injuring 450+ more and murdering at least another fourteen.

Correction 2024-09-19:

There is no evidence to suggest that whichever Israeli covert operations group executed the interdiction and installed the explosives attempted to limit the devices to those which were specifically for Hezbollah members. There is widespread evidence of medical professionals being injured in the pager attacks, which implies that there was no careful selection. Israel learned of the order type for Hezbollah and interdicted and converted all pagers (and walkie-talkies) into bombs to be triggered by remote.

See the video with Marouf and the article by Moon of Alabama. The MoA article provides details of the European company which ordered the Taiwanese produced consumer electronics for delivery to Lebanon.

Updated 2024-19-21: More details of the operation have emerged.

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At 15:30 local time in Lebanon in Tuesday 2024-09-17 Mossad's operations wing exploded thousands of pagers which had recently been acquired by Hezbollah. Injuries amounted to over three thousand, more then 200 serious, with at least eleven deaths. The explosive attack was not simultaneous, but in waves.

One victim of the terrorist attack was a son of Lebanese member of Parliament, Ali Ammar. His response to his family's tragedy was indicative of Lebanese attitudes to the genocidal Zionists: "We will deal with the enemy in the language it understands". Another victim of Israel’s terrorism was an eight-year-old girl.

On the same day, Israel added to its formal war goals the return of citizens to their former homes near the border with Lebanon on Syrian land occupied after the 1967 “6-Day War”. This shift in explicit aims for their current war against the occupied Palestinaians occurred as Netanyahu attempted to replace Israel's civilian military leader Gallant who has, like US military leadership, warned against the folly of invading southern Lebanon.

Israel has neither claimed responsibility nor denied its running of the terrorist attack on Hezbollah and Lebanese civilians, as is standard for covert operations. The settler colonial, genocidal, Zionist state has a history of using communications devices for attacks dating back to 1996. An official of Netanyahu's regime issued a tweet implying responsibility for the attack, which has since been deleted.

This article assumes that Israel's external military intelligence and operations group was responsible for the attack on Hezbollah and civilians who happened to be near them when Mossad exploded the pagers.

Later on Tuesday, US officials who were “briefed on the operation” confirmed to The New York Times that Israel was behind the attack. They said Israel planted explosives in pagers that Hezbollah ordered from Taiwan.

Dave DeCamp, Antiwar

Pagers

The operation was a supply-side attack based on a recent Hezbollah decision to issue pagers to some of its members.

The design of the old pager communication system provides some security properties which mobile phones lack; their location cannot be triangulated by cellphone towers. The protocol and hardware implementation uses the radio and TV type broadcast model, which is to say that a pager communicates with one broadcast station at once, preventing triangulation. One can merely know that the receiving device is in range of the broadcast point rather than the far more precise location which can be obtained by triangulating the multiple cell tower connections which mobile phones maintain when possible.

The new pagers used two AAA batteries or a lithium ion battery, depending on the model. The explosions captured on video and documented by the injuries received indicate that explosives were inserted into the new pagers. This opinion is supported by Lukasz Olejnik, an independent consultant and visiting senior research fellow at King’s College London’s Department of War Studies.

Pagers are a major communications technology, often used in hospitals, a perfect location for them. In the case of a hospital running a pager service, the broadcast mechanism in the hospital allows the short message service to operate there and to not intrude on medical staff when away from the hospital. The physical separation of communications services, by pager or mobile phone, allows the health professionals to instantly know the origin of a message and thus to allocate increased attention to the pager messages.

Mossad installed the explosives on pagers which were to be given to Hezbollah members and not the general public which would likely have included medical staff. This partially limited the deaths and injuries caused by of the explosions to Hezbollah members and those nearby. By executing it, Mossad have declared to Hezbollah the level of penetration they have into the personnel of the military wing of Hezbollah because of the selection phase of the interdiction component of the operation.

Escalating the Northern Front

CENTCOM commander Kurilla has visited Tel Aviv repeatedly in the last fortnight informing Israel of the US military's reluctance to be involved in a ground war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The attack occurred while Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, awaiting ICC (International Criminal Court) charges on war crimes and leading the state being prosecuted at the ICJ (UN International Court of Justice) for genocide, is replacing his Defence Minister Gallant because Gallant will not support Netanyahu’s wish to launch a large military operation attacking souther Lebanon. One sensible reason for Gallant’s hesitation is the US military warning that they wont back the IDF and that they agree that escalating of the conflict with Lebanon into a full ground war is highly dangerous. As with the idiotic Ukrainian invasion of Russia, the obvious question is: And then what?

To confound matters, the recent hypersonic missile attack close to Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv by Yemen's Ansar Allah will have further raised the concerns of all professional military leaders in both Tel Aviv and Washington. US ships, including aircraft carriers, are sitting ducks vulnerable to attack by hypersonic missiles.

Israel’s denial of the hypersonic nature of the projectile relies on people not being able to divide numbers:

• San'aa to Tel Aviv is 2000 Km. The missile thus averaged 2 000 000 / (12 * 60) m/s. The speed of sound at 1 atmosphere of presure is 330 m/s. The missile, thus, averaged Mach 8.4. You can call that hypersonic or not. It is still 2 777 m/s or 10 000 Km/h assuming that the travel time is accurate.

• See the discussion with Col. Jacques Baud on Dialogue Works [below] for a more precise calculation of distance and time for the missile attack. Baud notes that it passed over 3 NATO warships and through Israel’s vaunted missile defence “shield”.

Ansar Allah’s demonstrated possession of hypersonic missiles is a proliferation of the technology beyond Russia, Iran and China (and not the West). Each has its own political agenda and cultural background which influence its decisions. This complicates political and military action to avoid an escalation ramp which leads to US humiliation and a potential end of the Zionist, Jewish-apartheid state, not to mention theatening all major economies by a plumet in oil supply.

Scott Ritter suggested that the attack is part of the tit-for-tat between Hezbollah and Israel since Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah senior commander Fakr in Beirut a few weeks ago on the same day it murdered Hamas’ Haniyeh in Tehran. Hezbollah launched a successful drone attack on Unit 8200’s HQ in Tel Aviv. The Israeli signals intelligence organisation lost over 20 officers and possibly its director. Ritter believes that the pager attack was a retribution in this spiral. If so, given the explosives and interdiction, it needed an operations teams, hence Mossad. Only then could Unit 8200 satisfy its revenge by pressing the button.

Cost-Benefit Analysis

The benefits to Mossad's leadership, theoretically the Israeli regime, from exploding its Hezbollah interdicted pagers were very limited Hezbollah casualties. It has somewhat further terrorized the Lebanese population, if that is even possible, especially in southern Lebanon, where they live under the buzz of drones and explosions of incoming missile and drone attack daily.

The core benefit is a temporary period of significant damage to Hezbollah's internal communications capabilities.

Hezbollah will run an internal security assessment. That will generate suspicions and cause internal distrust until the exact nature of the operation is understood. They will almost certainly add computer electronics experts to their ranks if they don't have them, and ensure that future supplies are audited for booby traps. Whoever was responsible for this, if there was such a role, is very likely to be the main target of their internal investigation to enumerate his or her network and identify Mossad connections. That the attack was possible reveals a serious failure of Hezbollah's internal security service.

The cost to Mossad is that the operation cannot be repeated. The opportunity is lost now and most likely into the future too. It is also likely to lose assets within Hezbollah.

From the above, the most significant benefit for the cost is the temporary degradation of Hezbollah's internal messaging. This would hint that the proposed dangerous attack on Hezbollah by Israel’s military is likely to happen very soon.

There is an additional "window of opportunity" problem for the Zionists. They need air cover for their proposed war in Lebanon and the seasons are changing. Alastair Crooke noted that their airforce are unlikely to wish to fly a fortnight hence. Bernard from Moon of Alabama concurs:

Soon bad winter weather will set in which will disallow the full use of drones and air force assets on which Israeli forces depend.

It is either now or after waiting another four months.

Adding to their conundrum, apart from the recent Ansar Allah launched hypersonic missile attack, is that the US carrier Theodore Roosevelt left a few days ago for the South China Sea or other areas in the Pacific taking its fleet with it. This leaves one US carrier group in the area.

This author concurs with Bernard’s rather dire conclusion based on the ideological vice of vices in which the Zionists have trapped themselves:

Netanyahoo and his cabinet seems to be under the illusion that a war with Hizbullah is winnable. Despite all Israeli trickery with booby trapped pagers it is not. Hizbullah/s well protected missile arsenal is likely to overcome all Israeli defenses. Israel is likely to end up on the losing side of any such conflagration.

A war could easily be avoided. Hizbullah has promised to end the current strife as soon as a durable ceasefire is signed between Israel and Gaza.

Netanyahoo's rejection of any permanent ceasefire in Gaza makes an Israel attack on Lebanon, and the following losses, an inevitable consequence.

There is one last consideration. Without US support, the IDF may just refuse to follow orders and let the battle happen above them at the political level in Tel Aviv.

Update: The Walkie-Talkie Attack

Hezbollah ordered the pagers and walkie-talkies around 5 months ago. The companies abused by Israel which supplied the communications devices have begun to be revealed.

The repeat attack’s lack of a coordinated “kinetic” military response suggests even more firmly that this was part two of a revenge attack by Israel’s Unit 8200 for Hezbollah’s successful drone attack on it. Perhaps they should redirect their anger at their fellow Zionist colleagues who run the Israeli defence “shield”. Even more effective would be pressuring their government to stop killing people in Palestine.

From Dave DeCamp at Antiwar:

On Wednesday, Israel blew up thousands of two-way radios used by Hezbollah in Lebanon, killing at least 14 people and wounding 450.

The walkie-talkie attack came after Israel blew up Hezbollah pagers in Lebanon, killing at least 12, including two children and four healthcare workers. The pager attack also wounded around 2,800, and about two-thirds of them require surgery to their face, hands, or eyes, according to Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad.

At least one of the walkie-talkie blasts on Wednesday occurred during a funeral in Beirut organized by Hezbollah for a person who died the day before. An eyewitness told CNN that the man whose device blew up at the funeral was covered in blood and had his hands blown off.

A funeral was also held on Wednesday for Fatima Abdullah, a nine-year-old girl who was killed in the pager attack on Tuesday. Fatima’s aunt told The New York Times that she picked up her father’s pager as it beeped to bring it to him, but then it exploded, mangling the fourth grader’s face and covering the room in blood.

A security source told Reuters that the walkie-talkies that exploded on Wednesday were purchased by Hezbollah five months ago, around the same time as the pagers. Images of the exploded walkie-talkies show a label that says “ICOM,” a company based in Japan. Axios reported that the walkie-talkies were booby-trapped by Israeli intelligence before they reached Hezbollah.

The pagers that exploded on Tuesday were reportedly packed with explosives and a detonator before they reached Lebanon. US officials said the pagers were ordered from Gold Apollo, a company based in Taiwan. But Gold Apollo said they were manufactured by another company, BAC Consulting, which has a license to use the Gold Apollo brand and has an address in Hungary.

Update 2024-09-21

In Alex Christoforou’s update of 2024-09-20 he provided further details of the operation which facilitated the terrorist attack. A summary follows:

A single employee company established in Hungary in 2020 by Mossad positioned itself to be a communications device supplier to Lebanon. The company had a license to build (had the designs and knew of the suppliers to obtain compents) at least some of the devices it supplied . This is did for years waiting for the Hezbollah orders. When they came it constructed the ordered devices with explosives built into them and develivered these weapons. They were designed to explode on receipt of some signal or message.

One is reminded of the STUXNET “virus”. It was a highly complex purely digital weapon (a “cyber” attack). This was a collaboration between the US and Israel to surrutpiciously control the centrifuges in Iran’s Natanz nuclear materials facility. To install itself the attack cryptographically impersonated the authenticity of Microsoft Update servers, alarmingly crossing the barriers of military and non-military technology. It also exposed a complete lack of security in industrial logic controllers used by building management (for shopping complexs, for example), factories and many other infrastructures (power plants, food preservation cooling plants etc. etc.).

An Unprecedented Look at Stuxnet, the World's First Digital Weapon, Kim Zetter, WIRED, 2014-11-03 [https://www.wired.com/2014/11/countdown-to-zero-day-stuxnet/]

2nd wave Lebanon blasts. Elensky curse, Harris & Trump. Mexico averts curse. Kursk panic before UN [0Iv046ykiqQ], Alex Christoforou, his YT channel, 2024-09-20

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Sources

Lebanon: Nine Killed, 2,800 Wounded By Israeli Sabotage Attack That Exploded Hezbollah Pagers, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar, 2024-09-17

US Insists It Was Unaware of Israel's Plans To Blow Up Pagers in Lebanon, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar, 2024-09-17

Israel Detonates Thousands of Hezbollah Walkie-Talkies, Killing at Least 14, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar, 2024-09-18

Israel's Pager Attack - A Sophisticated One-Times Shot With Little Effect, b., Moon of Alabama, 2024-09-18

The Mystery of Hezbollah’s Deadly Exploding Pagers, Lily Hay Newman & Matt Burgess, Wired, 2024-09-17 [https://www.wired.com/story/pager-explosion-hezbollah/]

Israel's Threat To Wage War On Hizbullah Is Getting More Serious, b., Moon of Alabama, 2024-09-17

Pagers, Chris Woodford, Explain That Stuff, 2022-10-04

Exploding Pagers in Lebanon and Syria, Stephen Bryen, Weapons and Strategy, 2024-09-17

Phones as weapons

Slaying Blended Technology and Guile, Joel Greenberg, New York Times, 1996-01-10

How the phone bomb was set up, Patrick Cockburn, The Independent, 1996-01-09

MSM reports

11 people killed, thousands injured in Hezbollah pager explosions, Barak Ravid, Axios, 2024-09-17 [https://www.axios. com/2024/09/17/hezbollah-pager-explosions-israel-tensions]

Hezbollah hit by a wave of exploding pagers in Lebanon and Syria. At least 9 dead, hundreds injured, Bassem Mroue, AP News, 2024-09-17 [https://apnews.com/article/lebanon-hezbollah-israel-exploding-pagers-8893a09816410959b6fe94aec124461b]

What we know about the Hezbollah pagers attack, Gerrit De Vynck, The Washington Post, 2024-09-17 [https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/09/17/hezbollah-pagers-batteries-explosion-israel-lebanon/]

Hezbollah vows to punish Israel after pager explosions across Lebanon, Laila Bassam, Reuters, 2024-09-17

Videos

Scott Ritter： Will Escalating Tensions Lead to Israel's Ultimate Humiliation？ - Ukraine Collapsing [ifEN4Dt1WXs], Alkhorshid interviews Ritter, Dialogue Works, 2024-09-17

• From 00:42:46 to 01:05:40 Ritter gives a speech on why we all almost died last weekend, and what can be done about it, especially if you are a US voter.

Col. Jacques Baud： Yemen STRIKES Tel Aviv： Israe''s Unexpected Downfall？ - Ukraine Has Lost! [A7GJZIwADSY]

Alastair Crooke ： Israel and Ukraine Soon to Explode？ [GtvmSBjfz-I], Napolitano interviews Crooke, Judging Freedom, 2024-09-17

Exploding Pagers Israel's latest terrorist attack in Lebanon [YxmpK7msDCM], Lascaris interviews Marouf, Dimitri Lascaris, 2024-09-18

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