Aljazeera.net correspondents
Beirut – In a painful scene, the capital’s hospitals were overwhelmed. Beirut And its southern suburb with hundreds of wounded this afternoon, Tuesday, and the hospitals of the southern city of Sidon witnessed severe crowding after receiving a large number of wounded coming from various southern regions, where 9 people were killed and more than 2750 others were injured, 200 of them in critical condition, due to the explosion of communication devices.badgerThey had it, about half past three.
As the sounds of ambulances were heard and paramedics rushed to transport the injured, some on stretchers and others leaning on the shoulders of their relatives, the wounds were clear on their faces and bodies, including the abdomen, shoulder and head, and ranged from minor to moderate.
What was striking about this explosion was that it was not limited to a specific Lebanese region, but rather included both: South Lebanon andSouthern Suburb To Beirut and the Bekaa, and targeted all carriers of the pager devices used by Hezbollah elements, without distinguishing between fighters or civilians from their families.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health called for the mobilization of its medical and nursing teams to receive the wounded, among whom were identified the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, according to what the Iranian Mehr News Agency reported, and the son of Ali Ammar, a Hezbollah MP.
Security war
In an interview with Al Jazeera Net, researcher and political writer Ali Matar considered the incident to be a “major security breach and part of the ongoing security war between the Israeli enemy and…Hezbollah“It is integrated into military warfare and is primarily managed at all levels of technology, intelligence and information gathering,” he explained.
Matar wondered whether there was an Israeli prelude to this action, especially after the statements of the Shin Bet that showed that Hezbollah was planning a security operation. The researcher believes that the attack began in the morning in the media and then developed into a security operation. As for the possibility of a comprehensive war breaking out, Matar considered that this depends on Hezbollah’s will.
“Since the operation was a security operation, it is likely that there will be a security response,” he added, noting that Hezbollah had previously targeted a base. Unit 8200And that the drones he used hit their targets and produced tangible results, which is a goal of great importance to the Israelis, “and therefore, this operation may be an Israeli response based on the achievement made by Hezbollah.”
Targeting scenario
Communications expert Amer al-Tabash pointed out that the information available so far shows that the latest shipment of communications devices in the possession of Hezbollah members “did not meet specifications,” and it appears that they contained explosive materials that interacted with the messages sent, which led to the detonation of hundreds of them in various areas, which led to a large number of injuries.
Al-Tabash told Al Jazeera Net that these devices rely on one-way communication, where the message reaches the recipient and carries certain codes without the ability to respond to it, and based on that he makes his decision either to make a call to a specific number or to head to a specific location.
He explained that Hezbollah relies on primitive communication devices to communicate between its members, which operate on UHF or VHF waves, and are usually hung on the waist, pointing to reports that Hezbollah has instructed its members not to use cell phones, and that pager devices have been distributed to the main leadership to summon them to missions or meetings.
In the targeting scenario, Tabash said the explosion could have been caused by the battery overheating or being exposed to high temperatures, which turned it into a detonator that detonated the explosive material. “However, there is no evidence so far that the device was hot, and from the photos and videos I have seen, it appears that the message arrived first, and when the person tried to view it, the device exploded,” the expert said.
Israel is responsible
Describing it as a “criminal aggression,” Hezbollah held the “Israeli enemy fully responsible” for what happened “after examining all the current facts and data, and the available information about the sinful attack that took place this afternoon,” according to a statement, speaking about how this aggression “also affected civilians and led to the deaths of a number of martyrs and the injury of a large number with various wounds.”
The party added in its statement that “our martyrs and wounded are the symbol of our struggle and sacrifices on the road to Jerusalem, a victory for our honorable people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and continuous field support,” stressing that its position in support of, and backing for, the Palestinian resistance “will remain a source of pride for us in this world and the hereafter.”
The statement concluded by saying, “This treacherous and criminal enemy will certainly receive its just punishment for this sinful aggression, whether it expects it or not, and God is witness to what we say.”
These developments come at a time when the Israeli official radio reported that the Minister of Defense Yoav Galant The leadership of the security system has been holding intensive consultations since the morning regarding Lebanon, where the Israeli government decided to add the item “the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes” as a fourth objective to the war’s objectives, in addition to a security assessment that Hezbollah intends to launch a military operation against “Israel.”
It is noteworthy that the pager is a small wireless device, designed to receive short messages and alerts, and it played a prominent role before the spread of mobile phones, especially in the eighties and nineties, and it is preferred for use by doctors, emergency responders and businessmen due to its reliability in receiving urgent notifications.
These devices work on two basic elements: the first is transmission, where the service provider sends a signal via a base station or satellite network to the pager, which includes numbers, alphanumeric texts, or audio signals. The second is alerting, where the pager emits a sound or vibration when receiving a message to prompt the user to check the screen and read the incoming message.
