The Hezbollah Operation: a Threat to Israel after the Sixth Israeli Pagers Abrupt Massacre and the Israeli–Israel War
Daniel and Jawad reported from Tel Aviv. Itay Stern and Shir David contributed to this report from Tel Aviv. Tom Bowman contributed from Washington.
“The Iranians are still talking about retaliating after the elimination of Haniyeh,” said Orna Mizrahi, a Hezbollah watcher and senior researcher at the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies. “The Iranians may have a bigger appetite to do something after this action.”
Israel’s leadership had warned before the pagers operation that only military action could stop Hezbollah’s attacks and allow Israeli civilians back to their homes near the border with Lebanon.
Veteran war correspondent Ron Benjamin wrote on the Israeli news site Ynet about the argument of officials in Jerusalem that the current timing is ideal for launching a comprehensive campaign in Lebanon. This campaign could potentially destroy Hezbollah’s missile and other capabilities, which were obtained with the assistance of the Iranian regime, which pose a serious threat to Israel.
The latest incident came as the Lebanese militia Hezbollah vowed that Israel will face punishment for Tuesday’s attacks, further raising fears among analysts that the region may be pushed to an all-out war that the United States has been trying to prevent.
“Israel might be thinking of reestablishing a security zone in Lebanon or creating a buffer zone around the Gaza Strip,” wrote Zvi Bar’el, in the left-leaning Haaretz. “This would imply a long-term occupation inside Lebanon, repeating the same mistake and expecting different results.”
Some Israeli columnists praised the explosion as an operational success, but reported that Israel didn’t originally plan to blow the devices up, out of fear that the information might leak and compromise the mission.
Hezbollah, Israel, and the Hamas-Leading Attacks in Lebanon on Wednesday afternoon: Blasts of wireless devices in Beirut and Syria
Hezbollah handed these pagers out among its militant operatives as well as its civilian functionaries, the group told NPR. There are four health care workers dead, including a Hezbollah-affiliated hospital, the acting health minister said. The party of Hezbollah is an armed militia in Lebanon.
Between January and February, Hezbollah stopped using smartphones and adopted pagers to avoid Israeli surveillance, said Amer Al Sabaileh, a Jordanian geopolitical analyst and security expert with contacts inside Hezbollah.
A day after the Hamas-led attack on Israel last Oct. 7, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia began firing rockets across the Lebanon-Israel border into northern Israel in solidarity with Hamas. Israel has since regularly targeted Hezbollah militants and weapons stockpiles, as the two sides trade attacks daily.
A second wave of explosions of wireless devices ripped through Beirut on Wednesday afternoon, including at a funeral for Hezbollah members and a child killed in Tuesday’s bombings, Hezbollah said.
The new blasts occurred just a few hours after the previous blasts in Lebanon and parts of Syria that left 12 people dead and nearly 3,000 injured.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant spoke on Wednesday about “excellent achievements” by Israel’s military and intelligence branches leading to “impressive results,” but without mentioning the device attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Even before this week’s blasts, which injured and claimed the lives of Hezbollah operatives, the group had already feared spying of its digital devices.
“Please break it, bury it, lock it up in a metal box,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech then. It can be done for a week, two weeks, a month. These are very dangerous spies.
Syria’s public news agency reports exploding home solar systems at least two hours after the radio detonations began a few weeks ago
Lebanon’s official news agency also reported exploding home solar systems less than two hours after the radio detonations began on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press. The details of the solar equipment attacks were still being developed at the time of publication.
It was the first time in a long time that we have seen so many casualties in a short period of time.
According to Le Beck International’s head of intelligence, Michael Horowitz, the devices exploding are likely handheld radios, which may be an Icom model.
Some people hurried to disconnect their appliances. The inverter and solar systems were unplugged by others. Many kept their cellphones away from them and refused to answer calls. All of them were viewed with suspicion by the residents of Lebanon. They may be the next device to explode.
Hussein Awada said that tomorrow lighters will explode as well. The cigarette will explode in your hand if you start smoking.
Witnesses to the First Hezbollah Attack in Lebanon: Is It Better than a Threat to Save a Family? Mr. Awada Reveals the Miracle of Lebanon
To Mr. Awada, the clandestine work that went into booby-trapping Hezbollah’s devices and the apparently seamless coordination of the attack were like a work of fiction.
Israel and the United States designate Hezbollah as a terrorist group because of its military and political power. But for many Lebanese, it is an organization with deep roots in society, providing a roster of social services and welfare programs across the country in the place of the ailing state.
“In Dahieh, it’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t know someone who was affected,” said Mortada Smaoui, 30, a local business owner, using the Arabic name for Beirut’s Hezbollah-dominated southern suburbs. “Either it’s your friend, or a relative or a friend of friend, so you can clearly feel the sorrow and the anger.”
After the first attack on Tuesday, Mr. Smaoui rushed to the nearest hospital, heeding calls for volunteers to donate blood. He saw the chaos firsthand as bodies were being carried away in blood-drenched sheets, family members were frantically searching for loved ones and injured victims were being turned away because of a lack of beds.
Mr. Smaoui claimed that after the first attack that it had shown Lebanon at its best with citizens from across the country coming together to clear roads and give blood, so that hospitals had to turn away prospective donors.
“There are buildings burning right now in front of me,” Mr. Smaoui said in the minutes after the second round of explosions, staring up at an apartment block engulfed in flames.
Dr. Salah Zeineddine, the chief medical officer at the American University of Beirut Medical Center, said the attacks were “beyond any catastrophe” he had dealt with before. Nearly 200 patients were rushed into the hospital in just three hours on Tuesday after the first wave of explosions, quickly swamping it.