Israel carried out its operation against Hezbollah on Tuesday by hiding explosive material within a new batch of Taiwanese-made pagers imported into Lebanon, according to American and other officials briefed on the operation.

The pagers, which Hezbollah had ordered from Gold Apollo in Taiwan, had been tampered with before they reached Lebanon, according to some of the officials. Most were the company’s AP924 model, though three other Gold Apollo models were also included in the shipment.

The explosive material, as little as one to two ounces, was implanted next to the battery in each pager, two of the officials said. A switch was also embedded that could be triggered remotely to detonate the explosives.

MBFC
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  • El_guapazo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    86·
    2 months ago

    How do we know these were actual terrorists and not just random people that bought a pager?

    They’ve classified infants as Hamas terrorists before so I’m a bit skeptical.

    • Agent641@lemmy.worldEnglish
      56·
      2 months ago

      The splodey ones all came from the same batches that were bought by Hezbolla-linked companies and distributed by them to hezbolla members. They didnt just ‘upgrade’ every pager made by gold apollo. Only batches destined for Hez.

      Of course, theres undoubtedly a lot of people who ended up with one of the booby trapped batch, who are just regular doctors, nurses, workers, etc, and theres no certainty that the person who was issued the pager was holding it at the time. Could have been their kid, or wife, or whatever, so the attack was still not very discriminate.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
            13·
            2 months ago

            In the context of:

            How do we know these were actual terrorists and not just random people that bought a pager?

            Yes, it matters. Because it suggests it wasn’t a random person that bought a pager.

            In the context of the morality of the situation, no, it doesn’t matter. It was not a moral act.

    • cartoon meme dog@lemm.eeEnglish
      7·
      2 months ago

      One can reasonably assume they studied the communications for a few weeks to figure out who’s who, and then sent the detonate code to a certain list of pager numbers.

    • Keeponstalin@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      2 months ago

      It’s worth noting that Hezbollah members aren’t just militant fighters. There are also social services and Parliamentary members

      Hezbollah organizes and maintains an extensive social development program and runs hospitals, news services, educational facilities, and encouragement of Nikah mut’ah. One of its established institutions, Jihad Al Binna’s Reconstruction Campaign, is responsible for numerous economic and infrastructure development projects in Lebanon. Hezbollah controls the Martyr’s Institute (Al-Shahid Social Association)

      Hezbollah holds 14 of the 128 seats in the Parliament of Lebanon and is a member of the Resistance and Development Bloc. According to Daniel L. Byman, it is “the most powerful single political movement in Lebanon.” Hezbollah, along with the Amal Movement, represents most of Lebanese Shi’a. Unlike Amal, Hezbollah has not disarmed. Hezbollah participates in the Parliament of Lebanon.