Several thousand pagers belonging to Hezbollah members blew up on Tuesday. At least twelve people were killed, two of them children, according to Lebanese health officials. Several sources tell the news agency Reuters and the newspaper The New York Times that Israel is behind the attack. Israel has not yet commented on the attack. Here’s what you need to know: What is a pager? A pager is a small device that you can use to get in touch with others. They were most popular in the 80s and 90s. – You can think of it as a small airpod box that was connected to the telecommunications network, explains technology advisor Torgeir Waterhouse. Photo: JOE MARQUETTE / AP You call a number to reach the pager. Then the number you are calling from will appear as a message on the pager. The person receiving the message can then find a phone and call the number on the screen. – It was a way of conveying to those who had a pager that I want you to get in touch. Basically, it’s just a way to be contacted. Where did the pagers come from? According to the news agency Reuters, Lebanese security sources have said that the pagers come from the Taiwanese company Gold Apollo. However, the company says that it is not them, but the Hungarian company BAC Consulting KFT that has produced the pagers. They are headquartered in Budapest. Head of the company Gold Apollo Hsu Ching-kuan says he does not want this to destroy the brand of the company he founded. Photo: YAN ZHAO / AFP The manager of Gold Apollo Hsu Ching-kuan says they entered into an agreement that BAC Consulting KFT could use Gold Apollo’s brand. Everything from design and production was handled by BAC itself, writes Gold Apollo in a statement to Sky news. According to the producer, the collaboration with Gold Apollo began three years ago. BAC has not made any statement. Why did they blow up? There have been several theories as to how the pagers have exploded. At first, people wondered if the batteries could have been hacked, but both Reuters and the New York Times cite security sources who say they are explosives. Head teacher in intelligence at the Staff School in the Armed Forces, Tom Røseth, says the explanation about explosives makes more sense, but that it requires an enormous effort. – It requires extensive planning, a takeover of the supply chain at one point or another, or that you pretend to be the supplier. For this to be possible, it must be a type of explosive that causes great damage in small quantities, he says. Several thousand were injured in the attack, according to Lebanese health authorities. Photo: Mohamed Azakir / Reuters According to sources Reuters has spoken to, there should have been 3 grams of explosives in the pagers. – It is a very complicated maneuver. You have to enter many devices and in a way that means that you were not revealed when someone takes it out of the box after a while, says Torgeir Waterhouse. He believes this must have happened after the pagers were sent from the factory. – I think it is most likely to have been stopped during shipping, modified and sent on in such a way that the sender and receiver are not aware that it has happened along the way. However, one source told Reuters that Israeli spies tampered with the pagers during production. Why did Hezbollah use pagers? In February, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah said that phones are “more dangerous than Israeli spies.” Technology advisor Torgeir Waterhouse says this is about tracking. – If you think about what we call telephones today, which are computers that are connected to the Internet all the time and that leave a lot of traces. Then there are many ways to find out where they are and monitor them, says Torgeir Waterhouse to news. Images like this and similar ones have been published on a number of social media in Lebanon and by international media. Photo: Screenshot / Telegram Nasrallah therefore asked everyone to get rid of their phones, and instead handed out pagers to all levels of the organization from fighters to health workers. Will there be war now? Researcher and special adviser in the Norwegian Armed Forces Hanne Eggen Røislien says an attack from Israel has been expected. She says the escalation has been going on for some time, with Israeli troops moving closer and closer to Lebanon’s border in the north. This summer, Hezbollah published what it claims is a video of the Israeli city of Haifa filmed during the day by a drone in the air. Marte Heian-Engdal believes Israel does not need to confirm that they were behind it because the whole world is already talking about what has happened. Photo: Snorre Tønset / news – It is quite obvious that these two really want to make their mark, both by showing their own strength but also by pointing out what the opponent does wrong things to justify their actions. Historian and author Marte Heian Engdal believes that with this attack Israel has managed to hit Hezbollah “quite effectively”. – This is not a security measure, and it is not war. It is in a gray area in between. So there is also a battle here as to who is the strongest. Published 18.09.2024, at 11.24 Updated 18.09.2024, at 12.16
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This is what we know about the pager attack against Hezbollah – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
