September 19, 2024
Mossad suspected after bold plan targeting terrorists leaves at least nine dead and thousands injured when explosive-packed devices detonate
Hezbollah has been "hugely" embarrassed by Tuesday's audacious exploding pager attack, a Middle East expert has warned, amid fears the deadly incident could trigger a further escalation of conflict in the region.
Hundreds of pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon at 3.30pm on Tuesday (local time), killing at least nine people, including a young girl, and wounding about 2800, with an estimated 200 in a critical condition.
The terrorist organisation said it "will continue ... its blessed operations to support Gaza", after the Iran-backed militia blamed the attack on Israel's ruthless spy agency Mossad.
"This path is ongoing and separate from the difficult reckoning that the criminal enemy must await for its massacre on Tuesday," the group said.
"We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression," the group said, adding that Israel "will certainly receive its just punishment for this sinful aggression".
There was no comment from the Israel about the deadly attack, which came just hours after it announced it was broadening the aims of the war sparked by Hamas' October 7 attacks to include its fight against Hezbollah along the country's border with Lebanon.
Mossad has been accused of infiltrating the supply chain of pagers, placing pentaerythritol tetranitrate inside them,The New York Times reported. There were also reports that Mossad had planted explosives in some 5000 pagers months before the detonations.
"Each one who received a new pager, throw it away," said a voice message circulated to Hezbollah members,according to one who shared it with The Washington Post.
The Times reported the pagers, mostly the AP294 model, had been ordered from Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo. The company denied any link to the products. "They are not our products from beginning to end.
How can we produce products that are not ours?" company head Hsu Chin-kuang said.
Any suggestion the pagers' lithium batteries were to blame was dismissed by the Middle East Institute's Charles Lister.
"A small plastic explosive was almost certainly concealed alongside the battery, for remote detonation via a call or page," Mr Lister said from Taipei. The company later confirmed the models were made by its Hungarian partner. Military and security analyst Elijah Magnier that would have likely necessitated access to the supply chain. "Israeli intelligence has infiltrated the production process, adding an explosive component and remote triggering mechanism into the pagers without raising suspicion," he said.
Major airlines Lufthansa and Air France on Tuesday announced suspensions of flights to Tel Aviv, Tehran and Beirut for a few days as tensions in the region soared. Lebanon's Education Minister announced the closure of schools and universities on Wednesday.
Current and former US and Israeli officials described the attack as unprecedented in scope and sophistication.
"My sense is that this was designed to send a message, and not necessarily operational preparation of the environment for a move into Lebanon," said Marc Polymeropoulos, a former CIA senior operations officer who served in counter terrorism roles in the Middle East.
Israel had delivered "a stark and brutal warning to Hezbollah that they have them totally compromised, and that war would be disastrous", he said.
William Wechsler, senior director for Middle East programs at the Atlantic Council, said the pager explosions were "hugely embarrassing for Hezbollah" and could trigger an escalation. "Hezbollah will feel it needs to respond," he said.
Australia's shadow home affairs minister James Paterson said the attack would be a wake-up call for the world's intelligence agencies.
"Well, this is a highly sophisticated and very patient attack," he said. "It highlights a couple of interesting things. Firstly, that supply chain security is very important. Connected devices are highly risky. And probably every intelligence agency in the world is waking up this morning and asking themselves, how do we stop this happening to us?"
The influx of so many casualties all at once overwhelmed hospitals in Hezbollah strongholds throughout Lebanon.
Videos posted on social media showed what appeared to be pagers heavily damaged by explosions and instances in which the devices appeared to explode in shops while being carried by their owners. One video, filmed inside a supermarket, showed an explosion as people gathered around fruit carts. Later, a man can be heard yelling in pain as bewildered shoppers watch.
Footage from hospitals also showed people with severe injuries, such as missing fingers or deep gashes to their body, including badly injured children.
Video filmed inside Bahman Hospital in Beirut's southern suburbs depicted bedlam, as dozens of injured people crowd the rooms and corridors. Some injured lie on the floor covered in blood, while others use paper towels to cover wounds. Several more injured men are carried through the hospital entrance.
At another hospital people were being treated on thin mattresses in a carpark, with medical gloves on the ground and ambulance stretchers covered in blood. "In all my life I've never seen someone walking on the street . . . and then explode," local resident Musa said.
The 10-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member was killed in east Lebanon's Bekaa Valley when her father's pager exploded, the family and a source close to the group said.
A son of Hezbollah politician Ali Ammar was also among the dead, a source close to the group said. Tehran's ambassador in Beirut was wounded but his injuries were not serious.
Meanwhile, Israel's internal security agency, Shin Bet, said it foiled an attempt by Hezbollah to kill a former senior Israeli security official. It said it found an explosive device fitted with a camera and a mechanism that would allow it to be activated by the terrorists from Lebanon.
Tensions between Israel and Hezbollah have soared after months of tit-for-tat strikes across the Lebanon-Israel border. Hezbollah has said it will halt its attacks against Israel if a ceasefire is reached in Gaza and
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is back in the region to try to revive the stalled talks between Israel and Hamas.
