The Hezbollah pager operation: the biggest security breach Israel has faced in a decade of fighting with Israel, the World Bank and the Red Cross

Footage posted on social media claiming to show examples of the explosions from around the country depict blasts that seemed too large to come from pager batteries alone. There was a mangled pager in a photo that could possibly point to the gold Apollo AP-900 pager. The Gold Apollo is the pager model which has a Lithium-ion battery, according to reports.

The Israel Defense Forces told WIRED it has “no comment.” Reuters reported that an unnamed “Hezbollah official” described the operation as the “biggest security breach” the group has faced in nearly a year of fighting with Israel.

“Hezbollah’s competent agencies are currently conducting a wide-ranging security and scientific investigation to determine the causes that led to these simultaneous explosions,” Hezbollah said in an initial statement.

The Health Ministry said nine people died and more than 300 were injured in the aftermath of the blasts. The Red Cross of Lebanon said ambulances were used in the treatment of people injured.

In the immediate aftermath of the explosions, which have not been independently verified, the footage from phone and CCTV shows hospitals flooded with wounded people, as well as explosions around waist height and images of pagers. People with links to the region say the explosions caused street-level chaos.

Hezbollah handed these pagers out among its militant operatives as well as its civilian functionaries, the group told NPR. Four health care workers, including one working at a Hezbollah-affiliated hospital, an 8-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy were among those killed, Lebanon’s acting health minister said. Hezbollah is a political party in Lebanon as well as an armed militia.

Jawad Rizkallah reported from Beirut, and Daniel Estrin reported from Tel Aviv. The report was written from Tel Aviv. Tom Bowman contributed from Washington.

Orna Mizrahi is a Hezbollah watcher and Senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies. “The Iranians may have a bigger appetite to do something after this action.”

“You can’t go to war while your house isn’t protected,” Al Sabaileh said. “If you don’t know what Israel is preparing for you, and how much they are prepared for you, it might be a recipe for suicide for Hezbollah.”

Hezbollah has vowed that Israel will face punishment for the attacks. It has not specified what form that punishment could take. But the group’s capacity to initiate an all-out war has been severely limited, security experts say.

“Israel might be dreaming of reestablishing a ‘security zone’ in Lebanon, or replicating the ‘perimeter’ tactic — creating a buffer zone around the Gaza Strip — to push back the threat,” wrote columnist 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.”

The explosions were praised by the Israeli columnists as an operational success despite the fact that Israel did not originally plan to blow up the devices in this way.

Israel’s Hezbollah is broken: Security experts confront Israeli intelligence on the latest blasts of wireless devices in Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday

Fearing that Israeli intelligence had infiltrated Hezbollah’s communications, Hezbollah officials adopted old-fashioned handheld beepers, security experts say.

Hezbollah said there were at least two more explosions of wireless devices in Lebanon on Wednesday, including a funeral for Hezbollah members and a child killed on Tuesday.

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.

The group had feared espionage before the blasts, and this week’s events have made them even more worried.

“You should bury it, put it in a metal box and break it,” the Hezbollah leader said in the speech. “Do it for a week, two weeks, a month. … These are deadly spies.”

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. Details of the alleged solar equipment attacks were still developing at the time of publication.

“From what we are seeing, including images circulating on social media, the devices exploding are handheld radios, possibly an Icom model,” says Michael Horowitz, head of intelligence at the risk management company Le Beck International.

The second round of explosions on Wednesday indicates that whoever conducted the sabotage and attacks likely had deeply rooted access and knowledge of Hezbollah’s infrastructure and operations. This shows an even deeper penetration that may have relied on multiple fronts and different electronic devices. This is not common.