New Delhi: The operation would have needed the involvement of operatives who were part of Hezbollah’s procurement process.
On 17 September, nine people, including a young girl, were killed and over 2800 were injured including some critically across Lebanon after hand-held pagers used by members Hezbollah to communicate exploded. The toll has now risen to 12 deaths. Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon was among the 2,800 people who were wounded by the simultaneous blasts in Beirut and several other regions.
Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, said the pagers belonged “to employees of various Hezbollah units and institutions” and confirmed the deaths of eight fighters. The group blamed Israel for what it called “this criminal aggression” and vowed that it would get “just retribution”.
The Hezbollah said an unspecified number of pagers which the group relies on heavily for communications due to the risk of mobile phones being hacked or tracked exploded at around 15:30 local time (1800 IST) in the capital Beirut and many other areas. The wave of explosions lasted around an hour after the initial detonation.
The Israeli military did not comment on the pager explosions, but said the Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi had held a situational assessment with commanders “focusing on readiness in both offence and defence in all arenas”.
On 18 September, multiple blasts again took place in different parts of Lebanon, 20 people were killed and at least 450 were injured as a result of the explosions in walkie-talkies.
Several solar power systems also exploded in people’s homes across Lebanon, injuring at least one girl in the town of al-Zahrani in south Lebanon.
TENSIONS RISE POST 7 OCTOBER
A day after the 7 October 2023 incident, the Hezbollah began attacking Israel from Lebanon using various rockets and missiles. This daily exchange of fire has resulted in the displacement of a large number of Israelis from Northern Israel bordering Lebanon. Hezbollah has been stating that it is acting in support of the Hamas which is also backed by Iran.
Hours before the explosions, Israel’s Security Cabinet had said that stopping Hezbollah attacks in the north of the country to allow the safe return of the displaced 60,000 residents was an official war goal.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, during a meeting with US envoy Amos Hochstein on 16 September had stated that the only way to return the northern residents home was through “military action” and “the possibility for an agreement is running out as Hezbollah continues to ‘tie itself’ to Hamas, and refuses to end the conflict”.
Since 8 October, it is reported that at least 589 people have been killed in Lebanon, the vast majority of them Hezbollah fighters. On the Israeli side, 25 civilians and 21 members of the security forces have been killed. Now booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkies constitute the latest salvo in the conflict.
IMAGINATION KNOWS NO BOUNDS
Imagine knowing that a particular batch of pagers manufactured by one company has been ordered by the Hezbollah and thereafter putting a small amount of explosive in each device. Thereafter possessing the technology to create a virus that heats up the device at a particular time causing the lithium batteries to overheat and explode.
The attackers would have needed to work with the manufacturers of either the devices or of a particular component of the devices to have been able to implement this. Further, it opens up endless possibilities of targeting mobile phones, laptops and other electronic devices in the future. But such an operation would have also needed the involvement of operatives who were part of Hezbollah’s procurement process.
A senior Lebanese security source identified a photograph of the model of the pager, an AP924, which like other pagers wirelessly receives and displays text messages but cannot make telephone calls.
There is no doubt that like the placing of an explosive device under the bed of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran there has to be a degree of complicity in this. But this attack no doubt raises serious concerns regarding the security at the manufacturing plants and a larger net of complicity which will particularly affect those countries which rely more heavily on imported components from manufacturing plants where security concerns loom.
Supply chain attacks will now be a concern in the security world, with the possibility of hackers gaining access to products whilst they are in development. These attacks were earlier focused on software. Hardware supply chain attacks are far rarer as they involve getting hands on to the components.
The Wall Street Journal cited a source as saying the affected devices were from a new shipment that Hezbollah had received in recent days. A Hezbollah official also told the newspaper some people had felt the pagers heat up before the blasts.
Overheated lithium-ion batteries can catch fire, but as per experts hacking into the pagers and making them overheat would not usually cause such explosions.
A former British Army munitions expert, who asked not to be named, told the BBC the pagers would have likely been packed with 10-20 gm of military-grade explosive, hidden inside a fake electronic component. Once armed by a signal, called an alphanumeric text message, the next person to use the device would have triggered the explosive, the expert said.
As per a report quoting a Lebanese source, the devices had been modified “at the production level.” “The Mossad injected a board inside of the device that has explosive material that receives a code. It’s very hard to detect it through any means. Even with any device or scanner.” The pagers exploded when a coded message was sent to them, simultaneously activating the explosives.
CONCLUSION
There is no doubt that this attack is unprecedented. In the use of technology, scale and nature, it is a harbinger of modern-day warfare. It marks a new phase in the technological warfare which is acquiring a form of its own. Weaponisation of daily use objects is a dangerous trend.
The incident could be meant to disrupt Hezbollah’s communications networks before a broader Israeli attack. Or the attack could have been conducted to demonstrate the ability of Israel’s intelligence penetration.
The Hezbollah would now face extreme pressure from within to retaliate. Hence the attack marks another dangerous moment, if not the most dangerous moment in the Hezbollah-Israel conflict since October.
These sophisticated attacks are a game changer and a defining moment in cyber warfare. They mark a new chapter in the Middle East and will have far-reaching implications both for those wanting to carry out such an attack and for those safeguarding themselves from such an attack. The consequences and scale of losses are already devastating, and are likely to shape global politics as we head into a vortex of violence.
* Maj Gen Jagatbir Singh, VSM (Retd) was with the Indian Army.