The News
More device explosions were reported in Beirut Wednesday, a day after hundreds of pagers used by Hezbollah detonated, killing at least 12 people.
According to reports, Hezbollah members’ walkie-talkies were targeted in the apparent second wave of attacks. Some of the explosions occurred at the funeral for Hezbollah members and a child killed in Tuesday’s attack.
Israel’s Mossad spy agency planted explosives in the pagers that blew up across Lebanon on Tuesday, according to multiple news reports.
The battery-operated devices were imported by Hezbollah months earlier, with members of the Lebanese militant group and political party using them instead of phones due to security concerns.
Reuters cited a senior Lebanese security source as saying that Mossad had planted the explosives in the pagers during their production, and that their detonation was triggered by a code.
Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel, which has not yet commented on the blasts.
SIGNALS
Israel has a history of similar assassinations
Israel has a long history of using communications devices in assassinations, the Financial Times noted, including killing a Palestinian leader using explosives in his phone’s marble stand in 1972. Media reports said the devices were likely intercepted at some point during their manufacture or delivery: Taiwanese company Gold Apollo, who sold the devices, denied any involvement, while the Budapest-based manufacturers BAC Consulting have not responded to media requests, Reuters reported. Analysts said the operation once again demonstrated Mossad’s skill in infiltrating even its most ardent adversaries, and also indicated the need for Hezbollah to update its security systems.
Israel and Hezbollah risk further confrontation
The pager attacks have exposed Hezbollah’s weaknesses and put the group and Israel on the “brink of all-out war,” Israeli newspaper Haaretz wrote. The scale of the operation, which has left nearly 3000 people wounded and targeted some top Hezbollah operatives, will now raise questions for the group around its security measures. The US, Israel’s most powerful ally, has downplayed its ability to intervene in the region’s rising tensions, saying that diplomatic negotiations were “not just a matter for the United States,” reported Al Jazeera.