Thousands of pagers explode in Lebanon killing twelve people and injuring thousands
Correction — September 30, 2024
This article claims the September 17 explosions killed twelve and injured 2,800, and that the September 18 explosions killed 20 and injured 450. We regret we did not follow our standard practices by not addressing the disagreements between figures provided by our sources, and in so doing not clarifying the figures we reported might not capture the full extent of the casualties. Additionally, this article incorrectly states these incidents took place on September 24 and September 25, respectively.
Tuesday, September 24, 2024
On Tuesday, a series of coordinated pager explosions occurred in southern Beirut and the Bekaa Valley, in Lebanon, resulting in twelve deaths and 2,800 injuries. According to CNN, the blasts targeted Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group. The cause of the explosions was still under investigation. Early evidence suggested the pager explosions were triggered by explosives planted in the pagers, or faulty batteries, Reuters reported. The following day, walkie-talkies, laptops, and radios also exploded, killing 20 people and injuring 450.
Representatives from consulting firms Predicta Lab and Le Beck told CNN that hardware tampering was likely involved in the pager explosions. They ruled out cyber attack as a possible cause. The latter firm suggested the malicious modifications could have been made before shipping the bulk order to the country.
Aljazeera reported that a shipment of pagers was in a port for three months awaiting import paperwork. They also reported that early investigations suggested the pagers included one to three grams of pentaerythritol tetranitrate along with metal balls, presumably added to increase the impact of an explosion.
The attack was allegedly timed to occur before Hezbollah started an investigation into inconsistent battery life of several pagers from the batch, The National (Abu Dhabi) reported.
The pagers were a brand owned by a Taiwanese company called Gold Apollo. On Wednesday, Gold Apollo released a statement saying the AR-924 pagers were manufactured by BAC Consulting KFT, a company based in the capital of Hungary. Hungarian authorities denied that the pagers were manufactured by BAC Consulting KFT, CNN reported. The CEO of BAC Consulting KFT told NBC News that the company did not manufacture the pagers, citing its role as "just the intermediate". According to the BBC, records indicated BAC was registered to a building with several organisations registered at the same address—which was not a manufacturing facility for BAC.
Mary Ellen O'Connell, a Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, United States condemned the attacks saying "[w]eaponising an object used by civilians is strictly prohibited", while the UN called for an investigation.
Lebanon's foreign ministry called the incident an "Israeli cyberattack", according to Reuters. Israel did not take responsibility.
The incidents came amid heightened tensions between Israel and Hezbollah following the Israel-Hamas War which had began in 2023.
Sister links
editSources
edit- Mohamad Ali Harisi. "Hezbollah got suspicious, Israel pushed the button: Why pagers exploded in Lebanon at 3.30pm on Tuesday" — The National (Abu Dhabi), September 20, 2024
- Tom Bennett. "Hezbollah device explosions: The unanswered questions" — BBC News Online, September 19, 2024
- Johnson Lai, Bassem Mroue. "Lebanon is rocked again by exploding devices as Israel declares a 'new phase' of war" — AP News, September 19, 2024
- "What we know about firm linked to Lebanon pagers" — BBC News Online, September 19, 2024
- Mithil Aggarwal, Peter Guo, Dan De Luce, Andrea Mitchell. "Who made the exploding pagers? A messy global trail emerges behind deadly Lebanon blasts" — NBC News, September 18, 2024
- "How did Hezbollah get the pagers that exploded in Lebanon?" — Aljazeera, September 18, 2024
- "Hezbollah blames Israel after pager blasts kill 9, wound 2,750 in Lebanon" — Aljazeera, September 18, 2024
- Ramishah Maruf. "We still don't know how the Lebanon pager attack happened. Here's what we do know about our own electronic devices" — CNN, September 18, 2024
- "What we know about the deadly pager blasts in Lebanon" — Reuters, September 18, 2024