The Israeli Attack on Hezbollah and the Lebanon Pager Explosions on Tuesday, September 7: a Day After the Attack

It was not clear how the attack was carried out. Initial reports on social media speculated that the pager explosions might have been triggered by digital hacking that caused the pagers’ batteries to overheat and explode. A report about a possible cyberattack was made by the Lebanon Broadcast Corporation. “According to information obtained by LBCI, initial reports suggest the pager server was compromised, leading to the installation of a script that caused an overload. This likely resulted in the overheating of the lithium battery, which then exploded.”

Jake Williams is the vice president of research and development for Hunter Strategy, who worked for the US National Security Agency. “The scale of this supply chain compromise is unprecedented. It’s hard to imagine what technology Hezbollah could consider ‘safe’ at this point.”

The fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has intensified since October 7 last year when Hamas fighters attacked Israel. In a second statement issued after the explosions, Hezbollah blamed Israel for the criminal aggression that targeted civilians as well.

BEIRUT, Lebanon, and TEL AVIV, Israel — A fresh wave of explosions in communications devices struck Lebanon on Wednesday, leaving 14 people dead and 450 wounded, according to Lebanese health officials.

Hospitals were flooded with wounded people, as well as apparent explosions happening around waist height and images of pagers, in the footage that was posted to social media after the blasts. People with links to the region say the explosions caused street-level chaos.

The new explosions took place barely 24 hours after the near-synchronized pager blasts on Tuesday that left 12 people dead and nearly 3,000 injured in Lebanon and parts of Syria.

Daniel Estrin reported from Tel Aviv, and Jawad Rizkallah reported from Lebanon. This report was written from Tel Aviv. The man contributed from Washington.

Orna Mizrahi, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, said that the Iranians were still talking about retaliating for Haniyeh’s elimination. The Iranians could have a greater appetite to act after this action.

Israel’s leadership warned in the days leading up to the operation that only military action could stop Hezbollah’s attacks and allow Israeli civilians to return to their homes.

The latest incident came as the Lebanese militia Hezbollah vowed that Israel will face punishment for Tuesday’s attacks, further raising fears among analysts that the region may be pushed to an all-out war that the United States has been trying to prevent.

“Israel might be dreaming of reestablishing a ‘security zone’ in Lebanon, or replicating the ‘perimeter’ tactic — creating a buffer zone around the Gaza Strip — to push back the threat,” wrote columnist Zvi Bar’el in the left-leaning Haaretz. “This would imply a long-term occupation inside Lebanon, repeating the same mistake and expecting different results.”

Some Israeli columnists praised the explosions as an operational success but reported that Israel had not originally planned to detonate the devices now but did so out of concern that information might leak and compromise the mission.

Hezbollah stopped using smartphones and pagers before Wednesday’s blasts blew through Lebanon, according to Al Sabaileh

Between January and February, Hezbollah stopped using smartphones and adopted pagers to avoid Israeli surveillance, said Amer Al Sabaileh, a Jordanian geopolitical analyst and security expert with contacts inside Hezbollah.

Wednesday’s blasts ripped through the city, including at the funeral of Hezbollah members and a child that was killed on Tuesday.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant spoke on Wednesday about “excellent achievements” by Israel’s military and intelligence branches leading to “impressive results,” but without mentioning the device attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Even before this week’s blasts, which injured and claimed the lives of Hezbollah operatives, the group had already feared spying of its digital devices.

“If you want to bury it, lock it up in a metal box,” Nasrallah said in the televised speech. “Do it for a week, two weeks, a month. … These are deadly spies.”

Lebanon’s official news agency also reported exploding home solar systems less than two hours after the radio detonations began on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press. Details of the alleged solar equipment attacks were still developing at the time of publication.

The devices that exploded in the pictures on social media are likely handheld radios, according to the head of intelligence at Le Beck International.

Hezbollah had access to and knowledge of its infrastructure and operations, that is how it was determined by the second round of blasts on Wednesday. The penetration may have been even deeper due to the different electronic devices and providers involved. This is not something that I have seen before.