PARIS: It’s around 3:30 in the afternoon on September 17. People in Lebanon are going about their daily business, doing the shopping, having a haircut, conducting meetings.
Hundreds of pagers across the country, and even outside its borders, then simultaneously bleep with a message and explode, wounding and killing their owners and also bystanders.
The communications devices were used by members of the Iran-backed Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, which swiftly blamed Israel for the operation, as did several international media organizations.
Israel, according to its convention for operations outside its borders, neither confirmed nor denied the charge.
But observers say that the simultaneous explosions bear all the hallmarks of an operation by Israel, which appears to have infiltrated the supply chain of the pager production and inserted tiny but potent explosives inside.
Israel may have even set up a shell company to supply the devices to Hezbollah in a years-long project that would seem fantastical even in an espionage thriller, according to analysts.
But that was not the end. A day later, on September 18, around the same time in the afternoon, another low-fi gadget, the walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah cadres, exploded, even amid the funerals for those killed in the pager attacks.
The subsequent day, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, who himself had told group members to use low-fi devices so as not to be targeted by Israel through the positioning of their smartphones, made his first public comments, admitting an “unprecedented blow” but also vowing “tough retribution and just punishment” for Israel.
Even though there is next to no doubt Israel was behind the operation, questions abounded. Why now? Is this the start of the widely-feared Israeli offensive into southern Lebanon? Or has Israel simply activated the explosives now simply because it feared the whole operation risked being compromised?

The explosions were felt Hezbollah’s strongholds throughout Lebanon: the southern Beirut suburbs, the south of the country and the Bekaa Valley in the east, as well as in Syria.
At least 37 people were killed in the two attacks and thousands injured.
The wounded included Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon. But those killed also included a 10-year-old girl and another child. As the hospitals filled up the most common wounds were mutilated hands and eyes.
“Hezbollah suffered a very serious blow on a tactical level, a very impressive and comprehensive one that affects the operational side, the cognitive side,” said Yoram Schweitzer, a former intelligence officer now at the The Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University.
Peter Harling, founder of the Synaps Lab think tank added: “The targets may have been Hezbollah members, but many were caught in the midst of their ordinary lives, and in the heart of their communities.”
“This is also a breach that is extraordinarily hard to explain.”
UN rights chief Volker Turk warned that the simultaneous targeting of thousands of individuals “whether civilians or members of armed groups” without knowledge as to who was around them at the time “violates international human rights law.”
International humanitarian law prohibits the use of “booby traps” precisely to avoid putting civilians at grave risk and “produce the devastating scenes that continue to unfold across Lebanon,” said Lama Fakih, Middle East and North Africa Director at Human Rights Watch.

Espionage professionals have meanwhile expressed their admiration for how the operation was put together.
“It’s not a technological feat,” said a person working for a European intelligence service, asking not to be named. But “it’s the result of human intelligence and heavy logistics.”
The small devices, bearing the name of the firm Gold Apollo in Taiwan, were intercepted by Israeli services before their arrival in Lebanon, according to multiple security sources who spoke to AFP, asking not to be named.
But the Taiwanese company denied having manufactured them and pointed to its Hungarian partner BAC.
Founded in 2022, the company is registered in Budapest. Its CEO, Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono, appears there as the only employee.
The devices in question have never been on Hungarian soil, according to the Hungarian authorities.
The New York Times, citing three intelligence sources, said BAC was “part of an Israeli front” with at least two other shell companies were created as well to mask the real identities of the people creating the pagers who were Israeli intelligence officers.
It described the pagers as a “modern day Trojan Horse” after the wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks to enter the city of Troy in the Trojan War.

The attack comes nearly a year after Hezbollah ally Hamas carried out its October 7 attack on Israel, sparking the war in Gaza.
The focus of Israel’s firepower has since been on the Palestinian territory, but Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops have exchanged fire almost daily across the border region since October, forcing thousands on both sides to flee their homes.
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the focus of the war was shifting toward Lebanon, while the government said securing the northern front was a key objective, in order to allow Israelis evacuated from the area to return home.
Schweitzer said that despite the spectacular nature of the device operation it did not represent the end of Israel’s work to degrade Hezbollah.
“I don’t think this impressive operation that has its tactical gains... is getting into the strategic layers yet.
“It does not change the equation, it is not a decisive victory. But it sends another signal to Hezbollah, Iran and others,” he said.

NEW YORK CITY: The UN on Friday said the detonation of hand-held communication devices reportedly used by Hezbollah in Lebanon this week violated international law and could constitute a war crime.

A senior UN official separately warned on Friday that escalation between Israel and Iran-backed groups in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon could lead to an inevitable spiral into a wider regional conflict.

The explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies on Tuesday and Wednesday killed at least 37 people and wounded more than 3,000 others after they detonated in public areas filled with civilians across Lebanon.

Hezbollah quickly blamed Israel for the violence, but the Israeli government has not commented directly on the attacks.

“It is a war crime to commit violence intended to spread terror among civilians,” said the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk.

Speaking to a UN Security Council briefing on the attacks called for by Algeria, Turk said he was “appalled by the breadth and impact of the attacks.”

He continued: “These attacks represent a new development in warfare, where communication tools become weapons simultaneously exploding across marketplaces, on street corners, and in homes as daily life unfolds.”

He told the council that this type of action “cannot be the new normal,” adding there was a need for an “independent, thorough, and transparent investigation” into the explosions.

“Those who ordered and carried out these attacks must be held to account. Let me be clear — this method of warfare may be new and unfamiliar. But international humanitarian and human rights law apply regardless and must be upheld,” he said.

The UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo told the council that the recent escalation risked “seeing a conflagration that could dwarf even the devastation and suffering witnessed so far” in the nearly year-long conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

“As we approach a full year of near-daily exchanges of fire across the Blue Line and bloodshed in Gaza, too many lives have been lost, too many people have been displaced, and too many livelihoods have been destroyed,” DiCarlo said.

“It is not too late to avoid such folly. There is still room for diplomacy, which must be used without delay.

“The secretary-general continues to urgently call on the parties to recommit to the full implementation of Security Council resolution 1701 and immediately return to a cessation of hostilities,” she added.

The Slovenian representative to the UN, Samuel Zbogar, who currently holds the presidency of the Security Council, expressed his “profound concern” over rising violence in the Middle East.

“We are stepping in a dangerous new territory and as new technology is being used and developed, we underline the need to respect the existing legal obligations,” he said.

“Civilian objects should not be weaponized. The international law is clear: use of booby traps is prohibited.

“We call for maximum restraint by all actors in the region. The circle of violence risks escalating into a wider conflict. We call on all parties, both state and non-state actors, to deescalate and refrain from any further retaliatory actions,” he added.

Deputy US Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood echoed this and told the council that it was “imperative that even as facts emerge about the latest incidents — in which I reiterate, the US played no role — all parties refrain from any actions which could plunge the region into a devastating war.”

He added that Washington expected all parties to the conflict to “comply with international humanitarian law and take all reason steps to minimise harm to civilians.”