Israel has intensified its airstrikes across Lebanon, with September 23 being the deadliest day since the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah. On that day, Israeli Air Force bombings killed 558 people, including 50 children and 94 women, and wounded 1,835 others. These strikes targeted approximately 1,600 Hezbollah sites.

The bombings followed a series of unusual and deadly attacks involving exploding communication devices. On September 17, hundreds of Hezbollah members' pagers detonated nearly simultaneously across Lebanon. The following day, walkie-talkies exploded in the capital of Beirut, adding to the toll. The blasts killed 37 people and injured over 3,000.

Hezbollah and the Lebanese Government blamed Israel for these attacks, which also affected civilians. Israel did not deny the allegations, with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stating on September 18 that "we are at the start of a new phase in the war."

Fu Cong, China's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, condemned the use of civilian devices as weapons, calling the attacks "outrageous" and unprecedented. During a UN Security Council emergency session on September 20, he urged all parties to exercise restraint, expressing concerns about the escalation of tensions between Lebanon and Israel.

This weaponization of civilian electronics has sparked global alarm, raising fears of an all-out war and highlighting vulnerabilities in supply chain security.

A lethal threat

At about 3:30 p.m. local time on September 17, as people shopped for groceries or navigated the afternoon traffic in cars and on motorcycles, the pagers in their hands or pockets began heating up and then exploding, leaving blood-splattered scenes and panicking bystanders. The blasts were mainly in areas where Hezbollah has a strong presence.

In one video shared online, a man is picking through produce at a grocery store when the bag hanging at his side suddenly explodes, knocking him to the ground as bystanders flee in fear.

"Most of the injuries were mainly to the face and to the hands. Many people lost their eyesight, and a lot of them also had amputations involving their fingers or their hands," Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad told U.S. radio broadcaster NPR on September 20.

Elijah J. Magnier, a Brussels-based senior political risk analyst, told multinational news agency Associated Press that he spoke with Hezbollah members who had examined pagers that had failed to explode.

What triggered the blasts, he said, appeared to be an error message sent to all the devices that caused them to vibrate, forcing the user to click on the buttons to stop the vibration.

The combination detonated a small amount of explosives hidden inside and ensured that the user was present when the blast went off, according to Magnier.

UN Secretary General António Guterres said on September 24 that Lebanon is on the brink of becoming a second Gaza, adding that the crisis has "become a nonstop nightmare that threatens to take the whole region down."

Guterres made his warning as diplomats gathering in New York City for the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly battled to impose a ceasefire in Lebanon and to hold Israel back from a possible ground invasion.

Telecom devices weaponized

According to U.S. cable news channel CNN, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had urged members and their families in south Lebanon, where clashes with Israeli forces were intensifying, to dispose of their cellphones, believing Israel could track the military group through these devices. He had long advocated for Hezbollah to switch to pagers for security reasons.

The New York Times reported that some of Nasrallah's fears were spurred by reports from allies that Israel had acquired new means to hack into phones, activating microphones and cameras remotely to spy on their owners. The newspaper cited three anonymous U.S. intelligence officials as saying Israel had invested millions in developing the technology.

The pagers involved in the blasts were identified as the Gold Apollo AR-924 model, produced by Gold Apollo based in China's Taiwan region. However, Gold Apollo later clarified that it had only authorized the use of its brand for these pagers, while the actual production was handled by a Hungarian company called BAC Consulting. Further investigations by The New York Times uncovered that BAC Consulting was a front for Israeli intelligence. The company, along with at least two other shell companies, was set up by Israeli intelligence to pose as international pager producers, it said.

The pagers began shipping to Lebanon in the summer of 2022 in small numbers, but production was quickly ramped up after Nasrallah denounced cellphones.

Li Zixin, an assistant research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies, commented to Beijing Review on the attacks that weaponized civilian devices like pagers. He emphasized that this tactic is particularly dangerous because it makes it nearly impossible to differentiate between military and civilian users, thus leading to indiscriminate casualties.

"When you are unable to tell who the users are, their locations or the real situation around them, setting off 3,000 mini bombs inevitably causes massive, unforeseen casualties. This goes beyond what the international community can accept," Li added.

Rising concerns

The exploding pagers and walkie-talkies have aroused wider fears among Lebanese and all electronic devices have come under suspicion.

Australian media outlet ABC News reported that the explosions were part of a "supply chain attack," meaning there is manual infiltration of the supply chain for devices, indicating that the sabotage occurred during the manufacturing or distribution process.

Zhou Hongyi, founder of Beijing-based Internet security company 360 Total Security, explained to Chinese newspaper Global Times that the incidents in Lebanon go beyond stealing information or disabling systems.

Such attacks can control physical devices and cause real harm or fatalities, according to Zhou. For example, intelligent connected cars could be remotely stopped or started, leading to crashes. He also warned that as artificial intelligence technology advances, the risk of systems being infiltrated will increase, making all systems vulnerable to attacks.

For example, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov claimed on social media that his Cybertruck, an electric full-size pickup truck produced by Tesla, had been remotely disabled by the company's founder Elon Musk.

Meanwhile, the Israel-Hezbollah conflict has been escalating, in danger of falling into an full-scale conflict.

Gallant announced that the war had entered a "new phase," with Israel's military resources and focus shifted toward the country's northern border. In the following days, Israel launched airstrikes on different locations in Lebanon, and Hezbollah responded by striking Israel's Ramat David Airbase, its farthest attack into Israel since the group began firing missiles at the Jewish country immediately after the outbreak of the Hamas-Israeli conflict in October 2023.

Li explained that Israel has set one of its military objectives as improving security in the wake of the Hamas-Israeli conflict escalation last year. Israel sees Hezbollah as its primary and most immediate regional security threat, and targeting Hezbollah aligns with its established military goals.

"Israel holds the power to determine how the Israel-Hezbollah conflict evolves. If Israel pursues its stated goal of weakening Hezbollah, pushing its southern front north of the Litani River, and creating a buffer zone on the Lebanese side of the border, then a ground invasion into Lebanon seems inevitable. However, the exact timing and scale of such an operation remain uncertain," Li said.

(Print Edition Title: Pager Danger)

Copyedited by G.P. Wilson

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