Lebanon is a country in shock.
On Tuesday, around 3:30 p.m., at least 2,750 people were injured and at least nine were killed when pagers suddenly began exploding, according to Lebanese authorities.
The victims are mainly members of the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia, but also private individuals, including children.
According to sources for Reuters and the New York Times, it is the Israeli Mossad that planted explosives in roughly 5,000 imported pagers.
According to the data, the pagers displayed a fake message and were programmed to beep for several seconds before exploding.
– The Israelis have disrupted the distribution chain and manipulated the pagers and put some explosive substance in the batteries or the pagers themselves, Hanin Ghaddar, an expert at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told Reuters.
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Taiwanese brand
Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo tells Reuters that the pagers were not manufactured in their factory, but by a company in Europe that had the right to use the company’s trademark.
Hezbollah uses its own telecom system to communicate, including with seekers, and has urged its members to avoid mobile phones to avoid the system being hacked.
The explosions came just hours after Israel’s Shin Bet security police announced that it had foiled an assassination attempt against a high-ranking member of the security services.
The operation is described as a joint collaboration between Israel’s intelligence service Mossad and the Israeli military.