Last month, thousands of electronic devices used by Hezbollah fighters exploded across Lebanon. Israel has not confirmed its involvement in the attack, but is widely believed to have been behind it. A new report details the dark features that led to the unjust destruction of some equipment. More deadly.
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Last month, thousands of electronic devices exploded across Lebanon, killing dozens and injuring thousands more.
The attack targeted pagers and walkie-talkies used by the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
A new report from the Washington Post says pagers have a dark feature that makes them even more dangerous than previously thought. The two-step decryption process means most users will have to hold their phone with both hands when using it. off.
Israel has not confirmed its involvement in the attack, but it is widely believed to have been carried out by Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency.
The newspaper said Mossad could trigger the explosion remotely, but also added special steps for users to read encrypted messages that could detonate the device.
“You had to press two buttons to read the message,” an anonymous source told the outlet, adding that the user was likely to “injure both hands” and be “incapacitated.” .
Up to 3,000 Hezbollah members were injured or killed in the blast, the newspaper reported, citing Israeli, U.S. and Middle Eastern officials.
Hezbollah appears to have switched from using cell phones to more low-tech pagers in the months before the explosion.
Sources familiar with Hezbollah told Reuters in July that the group had banned cellphone use on the battlefield to stay ahead of Israeli intelligence.
Former spies previously told Business Insider that the operation suggested a calculated, textbook-executed covert operation.
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“What we are looking at is a very careful, thorough, well-calculated and meticulously coordinated process,” said former Israeli intelligence official Avi Melamed. .
Emirates has since banned passengers from carrying pagers and walkie-talkies on board.
“All passengers traveling on flights to, from, or through Dubai are prohibited from transporting pagers or walkie-talkies in checked or cabin baggage,” the airline said in a statement.
The airline also announced that flights to and from Beirut have been canceled until after October 15th.
Israel and Hezbollah have been carrying out repeated attacks since October last year, following Hamas’ attack on the Jewish state on October 7.
Israel has stepped up attacks against Hezbollah leaders in recent weeks.
Last week, the IDF announced it had killed Hassan Nasrallah, the group’s leader for 32 years, in an airstrike on Beirut.
Nasrallah’s death prompted a major retaliatory missile attack by Iran, raising fears of a wider conflict in the region.
