Israel-Hezbollah pager-walkie talkie attack: Latest developments

Tensions between Iran backed Hezbollah and Israel continued to escalate on the southern Lebanese border as both the parties continue their string of retaliations since the last year’s October 7 attack involving Hamas.

The latest spate of attacks saw pagers and walkie talkies explode in Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. The attacks collectively killed around 50 people and left approximately 3,500 injured.

This has been the ‘biggest security breach’ in the history of the armed militant group Hezbollah.

What have Israel, Hezbollah reacted?

Calling it an open declaration of war by Israel, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the deadly explosions earlier “crossed all red lines”. On the other hand, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel is embarking on a “new phase of the war”, concentrating more of its efforts on the northern border, Reuters reported.

People watch Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah delivering a televised address, as they sit at a cafe in Sidon, Lebanon September 19, 2024. (REUTERS)

“This is massacre, a major aggression against Lebanon, its people, its resistance, its sovereignty, and its security. It can be called war crimes or a declaration of war – whatever you choose to name it, it is deserving and fits the description. This was the enemy’s intention,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech on Thursday.

In an intent to retaliate, Hezbollah fighters on Thursday morning fired two anti-tank missiles across their border in southern Lebanon, followed by drones, which according to the IDF killed two Israeli soldiers and left another wounded.

An Israeli fighter jet takes off at an unidentified location to conduct strikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, in this handout photo released September 19, 2024. (Reuters)

Later, in a statement made on the same day Israeli Defence forces IDF said its warplanes “struck approximately 100 launchers and additional terrorist infrastructure sites, consisting of approximately 1,000 barrels that were ready to be used in the immediate future to fire toward Israeli territory”.

Amid Israeli Air Force’s air strikes that included 30 rocket launcher fired on Hezbollah military positions across southern Lebanon, the security cabinet decided to allow residents of the north to return safely to their homes after being displaced by attacks by the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.

What has Iran and Lebanon said?

Responding on the attacks on the communication devices, Israel’s major arch nemesis, Iran too vouched for consequences against it. Israel will face “a crushing response from the axis of resistance”, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Commander Hossein Salami said talking to Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday, reported Reuters quoting state media.

“Such terrorist acts are undoubtedly the result of the Zionist regime’s (Israel) despair and successive failures,” Salami said in his message to Nasrallah.

The axis of resistance is the to Iran-aligned armed groups in the Middle East, that includes Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis, and Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces.

Mourners carry the coffin of Hezbollah member Ali Mohamed Chalbi, after hand-held radios and pagers used by Hezbollah detonated across Lebanon, during his funeral in Kfar Melki, Lebanon September 19, 2024. (REUTERS)

The Lebanese mission to the UN in a letter to the Security Council on Thursday stood Israel responsible for detonating the devices via electronic messages and explosives implanted in them.

The 15-member UN Security Council is due to meet on Friday over the blasts which was called in by Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati to take a firm stand to stop Israel’s “aggression” and “technological war”, reported Reuters.

US in the midst of the heat

US officials on Thursday revealed that Israel in a phone call on Tuesday, the same day of the pager attack, made a warning to the US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin of an attack in Lebanon without giving any explicit details, AP reported. However, no intimations were made regarding the second attack, said US officials.

These were one of the four calls between Israel and the US amid simmering escalations of violence. Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh on Thursday acknowledged the four calls but did not provide timelines of when they happened.

US officials stressed that they had no involvement with the attacks on electronic devices and continue to bolster their stand on a cease-fire following the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

About the pagers

A Taiwanese pager company Gold Apollo got caught in the frenzy as its president and founder Hsu Ching-kuang has been linked to the detonation of the pagers. He was questioned by prosecutors late night on Thursday where he declined manufacturing the devices and instead pointed at a Budapest-based company BAC of which he had a license to use its brand. He was later released.

A Hezbollah flag and the Gold Apollo logo are seen in this illustration taken September 19, 2024. (REUTERS)

Moreover, Bulgaria’s state security agency DANS said on Friday that no pagers used in Lebanon attack were imported to, exported from, or made in Bulgaria, said Reuters. This comes after Bulgarian authorities had opened an investigation into a company’s possible link to the sale of pagers to Lebanon’s militant group Hezbollah.

Both the pagers and walkie talkies were brought by Hezbollah around 5 months before, reported news agency Reuters.

Taiwan’s economy minister later said that the pagers are not made in Taiwan. “The components are (mainly) low-end IC (integrated circuits) and batteries,” Taiwan’s Economy Minister Kuo Jyh-huei told reporters. “I can say with certainty they were not made in Taiwan,” he said adding that the case is being investigated by judicial authorities.

Taiwanese authorities are now looking for any potential links between its sprawling global tech supply chains and the devices used in the attacks in Lebanon, reported Reuters.

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