Mystery explosions in Lebanon: Pagers turn deadly, Hezbollah accuses Israel

Thousands of people were injured in Lebanon after pagers used by the armed group Hezbollah exploded almost at the same time across the country on Tuesday, 17th September.

At least nine people have died, and around 2,800 were injured, many seriously.

It's not clear how this attack, which seems to be very sophisticated, happened. Hezbollah blames Israel for the incident, but Israeli officials have not commented yet.

The explosions started in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, and in several other places across the country at around 3:45 PM local time (5:15 PM IST) on Tuesday, 17th September.

Witnesses said they saw smoke rising from people's pockets, followed by small explosions that sounded like fireworks and gunshots.

A CCTV clip showed what looked like an explosion in a man's pocket while he was at a shop counter, according to a BBC report.

According to Reuters, explosions kept happening for about an hour after the first blasts.

Shortly after, many people started going to hospitals throughout Lebanon, with witnesses describing chaotic scenes.

What caused the pagers to explode?

Experts quickly expressed surprise at the size of Tuesday's attack, noting that Hezbollah is known for its strong security measures.

Remote battery overheating?

Some suggested a hack might have caused the pager batteries to overheat and explode, which would be a new occurrence. If a lithium battery overheats, it can start a process called thermal runaway.

Thermal runaway is when a battery overheats uncontrollably, causing a rapid increase in temperature that can lead to fire or explosion.

However, many experts believe this is unlikely, as the explosion footage doesn't match what happens when batteries overheat.

However, triggering that reaction in many offline devices is very complicated. These attacks usually focus on software. Hardware attacks are rarer because they need physical access to the device.

An analyst said you’d need a bug in the pager that makes it overheat under certain conditions, likely caused by altered code added to the device.

Pagers compromised in transit?

Some experts suggest it’s more likely that a supply chain attack occurred, where the pagers were tampered with during manufacturing or shipping.

Supply chain attacks are becoming a bigger worry in cybersecurity. These attacks happen when hackers tamper with products during development or shipping. Recently, there have been several major incidents caused this way.

If this was a supply chain attack, it would have required a big operation to secretly alter the pagers.

Explosives Hidden in Pagers ?

A former British Army munitions expert, speaking anonymously to the BBC, said the devices might have contained 10 to 20 grams of military-grade explosive hidden in a fake electronic part.

The expert explained that this could be triggered by a signal, like an alphanumeric text message.

Why does Hezbollah rely on pagers?

Hezbollah uses pagers as a simple way to communicate and avoid being tracked by Israel.

A pager is a wireless device that displays text or voice messages sent via telephone through a central operator.

Unlike mobile phones, pagers use radio waves. An operator sends a message through radio frequency, which is unique to the recipient’s device, instead of using the internet.

Pagers use simple technology and physical hardware, making them harder to monitor. This makes them popular with groups like Hezbollah, where mobility and security are crucial.

Mobile phones are considered too risky, shown by the 1996 incident when Yahya Ayyash, a Hamas bomb-maker, was killed after his phone exploded.

A Hezbollah member told the AP news agency that the pagers were a new brand they hadn't used before.

Emily Harding, a former CIA analyst, told the BBC that the security breach was highly embarrassing for Hezbollah.She said that such a big breach is not only dangerous but will also make them question their whole security setup.

I expect they’ll carry out a thorough internal investigation, which might distract them from any conflict with Israel.

Why didn’t the same explosions happen in Gaza?

Hamza Attar from King’s College London told Al-Jazeera that they can't use the same method in Gaza because Hamas is more cyber-aware than Hezbollah.

He said Hamas is very skilled in telecommunications and puts a lot of effort into encrypting their communications.

He said Hamas doesn’t use phones or cellphones. They have their own network and internet for communication and don’t need anything above ground.

(The author of this article is a Defence, Aerospace & Political Analyst based in Bengaluru. He is also Director of ADD Engineering Components, India, Pvt. Ltd, a subsidiary of ADD Engineering GmbH, Germany)

(Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own and do not reflect those of DNA)