Nine people, including an 8-year-old girl, were killed, but it is thought that thousands were injured. Injuries would have been made worse because most of the pagers were kept in front trouser pockets.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah previously warned the group’s members not to carry mobile phones, saying Israel could use them to track the group’s movements. As a result, the organisation uses pagers to communicate.
The pagers shipped from a new supplier had small explosives inside triggered by a remote command.
Nicholas Reese, an adjunct instructor at the Center for Global Affairs in New York University’s School of Professional Studies said the attack will also force Hezbollah to change their communication strategies.
Survivors of the explosions will likely throw away “not just their pagers, but their phones, and leaving their tablets or any other electronic devices.”
Even with a US official confirming it was a planned operation by Israel, multiple theories have emerged around how the attack might have been carried out. Several experts who spoke with The Associated Press explained how the explosions were most likely the result of supply-chain interference.
Last year, AP reported that Iran accused Israel of trying to sabotage its ballistic missile programme through faulty foreign parts that could explode, damaging or destroying the weapons before they could be used.
TrustedSec director of security intelligence Carlos Perez said that by the time of the attack, “the battery was probably half-explosive and half-actual battery.”.
Former British Army bomb disposal officer Sean Moorhouse said that an explosive device has five main components: A container, a battery, a triggering device, a detonator and an explosive charge. All those interfering with the supply chain would have to do is add a detonator and the charge.”
The sophistication of the attack suggests that Israel has been collecting intelligence for a long time. It would appear that the pagers were bought six months ago and worked fine until then.
The Israeli’s sent an error message to all the devices causing the explosion. Many pagers didn’t go off, allowing the group to inspect them. They concluded that between 3 to 5 grams of highly explosive material were concealed or embedded in the circuitry, he said.