How Did Thousands of Pagers Used by Hezbollah Explode at the Same Time?
Unprecedented attack comes after Israeli officials warned about escalating tensions on the Lebanese border
Thousands of people were injured and 12 killed when pagers exploded in Lebanon in an apparent Israeli attack against the militant group Hezbollah.
Why are Hezbollah operatives using pagers?
Hezbollah acknowledged the vulnerability of its communication networks earlier in its escalating conflict with Israel, which began with the start of the war in Gaza in October last year. In February, the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, urged its fighters to get rid of their smartphones, saying Israel could use them for surveillance or targeting. A Hezbollah official said Tuesday that many fighters had pagers. Many of the affected pagers were from a new shipment that Hezbollah had received recently, part of a nearly yearlong process to swap out older devices.
Where did the pagers come from and who made them?
Early reports said that the pagers were manufactured by a company called Gold Apollo in Taiwan.
Gold Apollo’s president, Hsu Ching-kuang, told reporters on Wednesday that his company didn’t make the pagers in question and that they were manufactured by a foreign company that had licensed his company’s brand and trademark about two years ago. Gold Apollo later issued a statement saying the pagers were designed and built by a company named BAC Consulting Kft, registered in Budapest. Calls to that company went unanswered. The person listed as the chief executive of BAC Consulting didn’t respond to requests for comment.
How did the pagers explode in Lebanon?
Hezbollah said a number of pagers carried by its members exploded simultaneously at 3:30 p.m. local time. Survivors reported hearing the pagers beep and display a series of numbers on their screens about five seconds before they detonated.
According to people familiar with Hezbollah’s investigation, the initial assessment is the pagers detonated because an explosive device was planted in the new models. The scenario indicates Israel found its way into Hezbollah’s supply chain to modify the devices that were delivered.
Robert Graham, chief executive of Errata Security, a cybersecurity company in Atlanta, said it was possible that hackers made the batteries inside the pagers blow up with a page containing malicious code, but that would be highly challenging. The hackers would need to know the make and model of the devices and the effect wouldn’t be as powerful as videos of the explosions suggest, he said.
A more likely scenario, according to Graham, is that a shipment of pagers from their manufacturer was intercepted en route to their destination and explosives were placed inside along with malicious code. A page would set them off.
Who is behind the attack?
Hezbollah and the Lebanese government blamed Israel for the attack. Both said civilians were killed, and Hezbollah threatened to retaliate. Israel declined to comment Tuesday.
How many people were killed or injured?
Authorities said the attack injured nearly 2,800 and killed 12 across Lebanon. Iranian state television said the country’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was injured by his pager but was conscious and not in danger.
What happens now?
The apparent attack by Israel on Tuesday risks escalating the low-simmering conflict between the two sides and frustrating U.S. efforts to seal a cease-fire in Gaza that could also allow a diplomatic solution to end the almost-daily exchanges of fire between the Israeli military and Hezbollah.
Hezbollah said Wednesday it would continue to support Hamas in Gaza by firing on the Israeli military.
Who still uses pagers?
Pagers have declined in popularity but are still widely used in the healthcare industry. Hospitals and doctors continue to use them to relay urgent messages, from summoning surgeons in an emergency to deploying staff and supplies where they are needed.
The technology has lost ground to cellphones, but pagers persist in healthcare because beepers can reach workers in cellular dead zones and have long-lasting batteries, said Eric Martinuzzi, a senior research analyst for Lake Street Capital Markets.
Roughly 2,200 U.S. hospitals still use the technology, according to Spok, a major seller of the devices, based in Plano, Texas. And as of June, the company had roughly 747,000 pagers in use across the U.S. and Australia, said Vince Kelly, Spok’s chief executive. The devices are manufactured exclusively for the company, he said.
Are other pagers at risk?
The average pager user likely isn’t at risk of harm, according to Vir Phoha, a professor of computer science and cybersecurity researcher at Syracuse University. This is because hackers should only be able to make specific devices explode remotely, not all devices or models associated with a particular brand.
“It wouldn’t be just any pager,” he said.