Hezbollah has blamed Israel for a series of explosions that left at least 11 people dead and nearly 3,000 injured in Lebanon yesterday.
The explosions happened within half an hour of each other as chargers handed out by the proscribed terror group exploded seconds after receiving a message.
Israel has yet to comment on the incident which has left 300 people in critical condition following the attacks which left Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani injured.
According to the New York Times, Israel’s sophisticated spy agency Mossad intercepted the pagers as they were transported from Taiwan and added one to two ounces of explosives and a detonator.
Andrew Fox, a Middle east researcher and former paratrooper suggested that nothing can be ruled out at this stage and that explosives packed into the pagers is just one theory.
Fox told GB News: “We could be potentially looking at the first weaponised cyber-attack here. You could make the suggestion that this wasn’t an explosive pager.
“They could have simply hacked the network using human intelligence to hack the network and caused the batteries to explode.
“If you look at the size of the explosion, that is entirely in line with a battery explosion so there are a few options on the table.”
Video footage on social media shows young men in shops and markets looking down a their belts as they seemingly receive messages from the pagers.
Seconds later, the video shows the pager detonating, sending the owner sprawling to the floor and people close by running away in panic.
There were chaotic scenes at hospitals in Beirut as hundreds of injured arrived in various states of distress.
Many had injuries to their fingers and eyes as a result of holding and looking at the pagers at the time of the explosion, whilst others had significant injuries to their torsos and thighs.
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned what he called “criminal Israeli aggression” and has laid the blame squarely at the feet of the country which he warned would face consequences for the attacks.
In a statement, Hezbollah said: “After examining all the facts, current data, and available information about the sinful attack that took place this afternoon, we hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression that targeted civilians too.”
The attacks caused panic across Lebanon, with many civilians too scared to answer phones in light of the day’s events.
Many analysts have warned that the attacks could be a precursor to a ground assault by Israel, as it seeks to prevent Hezbollah from being able to fire over their shared northern border.
Following the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7th, Hezbollah, backed by Iran, has increased the tempo of their attacks on Israel, in the knowledge that Israel Defence Force’s (IDF) are stretched thinly.
Hezbollah attacks mainly come in the form of cross-border rocket attacks, with Israel needing to drive the terror group’s “frontline” back by around 10km to put them out of range and nullify their threat.
Andrew Fox believes that this could be a primary motivation for Israel’s targeting of Hezbollah in their pager attack, depleting their manpower and disrupting their command and control before launching ground forces.
He said: “Israel needs to push Hezbollah back beyond the Awali River in southern Lebanon to stop the rocket attacks and the only way to do that is through ground forces.
“So, I do wonder if this is a precursor to that.”
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