Hezbollah pagers explode all over Lebanon injuring 1000s

[pcgeek11]

A second wave of explosions happened, this time with walkie talkies. 14 dead, up to 450 injured. Sounds like more damage there. Makes sense, you hold them to your face or ear to use. A hidden charge of something potent, maybe a little dedicated frag in there to ensure at least one deep wound, and then it's hoisted to within inches of your brain. No bueno.

That is some arresting strike Israel. Having your hand or several fingers blown off, or serious damage to your torso near groin or kidneys, yeah I can see how that might take the steam out of a desire and ability to wage war. If you survive, you probably can't operate a weapon well and are now easier to identify. Womp womp.

And that's just the immediate effects. Think of the fear and doubt this sows. Hezbollah is going to be questioning it's communication devices for years, may even abandon the use of electronic devices altogether after this.

Now they need to rig up some pens and paper to blow up on command....

 

[iRONic]

*Knew his investment in carrier pigeons would eventually pay off*

Ca-ching $$$

 

[Zorba]

*Knew his investment in carrier pigeons would eventually pay off*

Ca-ching $$$

Israel might genetically engineer them to grew C4 in their bellies naturally.

 

[Jaskalas]

Let's see how this goes, but Israel might have just done the general Lebanese population, which has been kicked down a lot in recent history, a solid.

Hezbollah has tens of thousands of Iranian rockets / missiles.
I suspect due to Israel's actions, those will soon be in the air.

Israel's actions will have escalated the war in the region.

 

[uallas5]

No proof yet, but a security expert on NPR was thinking that the Hungarian "manufacturer" was just a front company for Israeli intelligence/Mossad setup for this sole purpose. It probably wouldn't be hard for the Israelis to find out that Hezbollah was switching to pagers, then create a dummy company to try and get the contract to supply them. The bonus would have been the walkie-talkies. BBC had a reporter at the address in Budapest and tried to get in touch with anyone but no reply. He described it as an unassuming small building, with a piece of paper on the door listing about 14 company names. According to the Japanese manufacturer, the walkie-talkies have been out of production for a decade. I'm thinking it would be easy peasy to buy a bunch on surplus on the down low and re-engineer them.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Arrest 'Yahu.

 

[Zorba]

No proof yet, but a security expert on NPR was thinking that the Hungarian "manufacturer" was just a front company for Israeli intelligence/Mossad setup for this sole purpose. It probably wouldn't be hard for the Israelis to find out that Hezbollah was switching to pagers, then create a dummy company to try and get the contract to supply them. The bonus would have been the walkie-talkies. BBC had a reporter at the address in Budapest and tried to get in touch with anyone but no reply. He described it as an unassuming small building, with a piece of paper on the door listing about 14 company names. According to the Japanese manufacturer, the walkie-talkies have been out of production for a decade. I'm thinking it would be easy peasy to buy a bunch on surplus on the down low and re-engineer them.

Low bid contracting!

 

[Jaskalas]

Looks like total war is upon the Middle East.

Hezbollah Leader Calls Israeli Pager Attacks a 'Declaration of War'​

• As he spoke, Israeli forces carpet bombed the terror group's strongholds.​

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

This cannot be excused or forgiven. The UN MUST act against Isreal.

 

[JTsyo]

No proof yet, but a security expert on NPR was thinking that the Hungarian "manufacturer" was just a front company for Israeli intelligence/Mossad setup for this sole purpose. It probably wouldn't be hard for the Israelis to find out that Hezbollah was switching to pagers, then create a dummy company to try and get the contract to supply them. The bonus would have been the walkie-talkies. BBC had a reporter at the address in Budapest and tried to get in touch with anyone but no reply. He described it as an unassuming small building, with a piece of paper on the door listing about 14 company names. According to the Japanese manufacturer, the walkie-talkies have been out of production for a decade. I'm thinking it would be easy peasy to buy a bunch on surplus on the down low and re-engineer them.

Sandboxx had about the same information. The company licensed the name to a front company which delivered the pagers. No information on where it was made.

 

[JTsyo]

Not directing this at you per se, but hypothetically if Iran perpetrated this against a US ally, would we give any kudos? (Obvious rhetorical question.)

Or would we be calling that terrorism?

2800 injuries, and one dead girl?

The NYT said this operation has no clear strategic goal:

Israel’s Pager Attack Was a Tactical Success Without a Strategic Goal, Analysts Say

By targeting so many pagers at the same time, Israel demonstrated technical prowess and partly restored the aura of its intelligence agencies. But its long-term intent is unclear.

www.nytimes.com

The closest analogy I can think of is if Turkey did it to the PKK. While the US isn't allied with the PKK, we are friendly with Kurds in general.

Ugh while the loss of innocent life is always no bueno, this could have potentially short circuited a broader conflict that would have left the general Lebanese population just as fucked as the people in Gaza.

Hezbollah has to be rethinking their entire command and control structure right about now. This maneuver took them from being able to open up a credible second front against Israel right down to disorganized street thugs in the threat hierarchy.

Let's see how this goes, but Israel might have just done the general Lebanese population, which has been kicked down a lot in recent history, a solid.

Or this might be the first step before Israel invades.

 

[pcgeek11]

This cannot be excused or forgiven. The UN MUST act against Isreal.

I think the key phrase is Terror Group.

Hezbollah Leader Calls Israeli Pager Attacks a 'Declaration of War' as Jewish State Bombs Terror Group's Strongholds.​

 

[KMFJD]

hezbollah is showing remarkable restraint

Rockets barrage towards Arab Al-Aramshe area Israeli-Lebanon border - Palestine and Israel news today on map - Jerusalem today - Israel News today - Palestine News today - israelpalestine.liveuamap.com

Rockets barrage towards Arab Al-Aramshe area. Israeli-Palestine conflict in live news interactive map. Two-state solution. Capital in Jerusalem

israelpalestine.liveuamap.com

they bombed an apartment building where hezbollah special forces where meeting, killed over 30 people in the process.....

Death toll from Israeli strike on suburb in Lebanon’s Beirut rises to 37

Children, women among victims of attack which Israel says targeted members of Hezbollah’s Radwan special forces unit.

www.aljazeera.com

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Declare Israel to be the terrorist state it has clearly become.

 

[KMFJD]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1837628977692791035

now that's something

 

[Xcobra]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1837628977692791035

now that's something

Lmao... Imagine being excused for bombing your neighbor into a 'peace deal...' What a joke the US has been in this part of the world.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Lmao... Imagine being excused for bombing your neighbor into a 'peace deal...' What a joke the US has been in this part of the world.

the sad part is that if this weren't an election year, i'd put good money on our response being completely different.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

^^^ If Kam manages to squeak it out, I hope there will be a change come February.

 

[Pipeline 1010]

Now they need to rig up some pens and paper to blow up on command....

I hear rumors they will go after telegraph keys and homing pigeons first. Next will be those cups tied together with strings that kids use to talk house to house. Pen and paper is being held in reserve only for use desperate circumstances.

 

[trenchfoot]

Brings new meaning to the term "boobytrap" when they're manufactured by the thousands and eagerly sought after for the effectiveness it brings in organizing and deploying units in battle. Well, I guess it's better than boobytrapping food, dead bodies, toys and now ironically named "action figures" that kids would get attracted to back in the day.

 

[KMFJD]

hezbollah launched attacks beyond their self-imposed 20km limit, this de-escalation through escalation appears to be not working

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Is a full scale mid-east war the October Surprise?

 

[WelshBloke]

Lmao... Imagine being excused for bombing your neighbor into a 'peace deal...' What a joke the US has been in this part of the world.

This is typically how peace deals are made.
Go to war, one side is better at bombing than the other side. Side that isn't as good at bombing eventually has enough and signs peace treaty written by the side that is better at bombing.

 

[WelshBloke]

This sounds like it needs a thorough investigation.
For our own safety, we need to know exactly WTF is going on.

Eh. "We" know what is going on. "We" don't need to know at all and won't be told the details.

And TBH if you pay attention to what's going on in that area this wasn't that complicated. It was pulled off perfectly and the opsec was amazing (or Hezbollah fucked up amazingly but there's no way the Israelis were banking on that).

 

[WelshBloke]

Not directing this at you per se, but hypothetically if Iran perpetrated this against a US ally, would we give any kudos? (Obvious rhetorical question.)

Or would we be calling that terrorism?

2800 injuries, and one dead girl?

The NYT said this operation has no clear strategic goal:

Israel’s Pager Attack Was a Tactical Success Without a Strategic Goal, Analysts Say

By targeting so many pagers at the same time, Israel demonstrated technical prowess and partly restored the aura of its intelligence agencies. But its long-term intent is unclear.

www.nytimes.com

I mean when you say "against a US ally" would that include proscribed terrorist organisations?

I definitely don't agree with the NYTs there. They absolutely aren't party to any discussions about the how's and why's of this operation.

Honestly I'm not a supporter of recent Israeli actions (I think that the way they have conducted the Gaza invasion absolutely criminal, and their greater treatment of the Palestinian territories appalling) but this isn't moving my outrageometer needle much at all.
It was very targeted against a terrorist organisation that's actively targeting Israel and it did that with very little collateral damage. If they'd taken out that many people with drone strikes there'd be orders of magnitude more civilian casualties. Hell if I was a Lebanese citizen it's the air strikes that are happening now that I'd be worried about not the exploding electronics!