What caused Hezbollah pagers to explode, and how Israel could be involved

Since the beginning of the Gaza war last year, Hezbollah members have been using some low-tech devices to evade Israel's sophisticated surveillance technology. However, reports suggest that Tuesday's pager explosions in Lebanon could be more than just a remote hack.

In Short

• Nine killed, 2,750 injured in Lebanon explosions
• Hezbollah used pagers to avoid Israeli surveillance
• Israel's Mossad planted explosives in pagers 5 months before attacks: Reports

At least nine people were killed and 2,750 were injured in Lebanon on Tuesday after wireless communication devices used by militant group Hezbollah exploded in what appears to be a targeted attack. Multiple reports have now claimed that Israel's spy agency, Mossad, planted a small amount of explosives inside the Taiwan-made pagers five months before.

Hezbollah and Lebanon blamed Israel for the wave of explosions, which lasted for about an hour, even as Tel Aviv did not immediately respond to the charges.

Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, has been engaged in cross-border warfare with Israel since the Gaza war erupted in October last year. The group had instructed its members to avoid mobile phones and to rely on its own telecommunications system instead to prevent Israeli breaches.

WHY WAS HEZBOLLAH USING PAGERS?

Reports suggested that following the killing of senior commanders in targeted Israeli airstrikes, Hezbollah has been using some low-tech devices, including landline phones and pagers, to try to evade Israel's sophisticated surveillance technology.

Hezbollah has also been using its own drones to study and attack Israel's intelligence gathering capabilities in what the group's leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, described as a strategy of "blinding" Israel.

These tactics have become crucial to facing a formidable adversary like Israel, which uses hi-tech security cameras and remote sensing systems to identify and strike down its targets in enemy territory.

Israel's electronic eavesdropping - including hacking into cell phones and computers - is also widely regarded as among the world's most sophisticated.

CAN PAGERS BE HACKED?

According to a Reuters report, some Lebanese sources told the agency that the pagers that exploded were a modern model recently purchased by Hezbollah. Another report by Iran's Press TV suggested that the devices heated up before exploding.

Since pager messages are typically transmitted over radio frequencies without encryption, hackers can use specialised radio equipment and software-defined radios (SDRs) to intercept large volumes of pager communications simultaneously. This allows them to capture and decode pager messages over a wide area, potentially affecting thousands of users in hospitals, industries, or government sectors that still rely on pager systems.

While encryption makes it harder for attackers to intercept and read pager messages, vulnerabilities may still exist. Hackers can exploit weaknesses in the encryption protocol, find flaws in the pager's implementation, or use brute-force attacks if the encryption is weak.

A former IDF (Israel Defense Forces) agent told Forbes that these devices could have been intercepted before delivery and outfitted with explosives.

"Looking at the videos it seems like the explosion was way stronger than anything that could be potentially made by a regular [computing] chip," the agent said, adding that software could also have been installed on these devices that would detonate by a trigger message.

Paul Christensen, an expert in lithium ion battery safety at Newcastle University, told news agency Reuters that the level of damage caused by the pager explosions seemed inconsistent with known cases of such batteries failing in the past.

"What we're talking about is a relatively small battery bursting into flames. We are not talking of a fatal explosion here. I'd need to know more about the energy density of the batteries, but my intuition tells me that it's highly unlikely," he said.

ISRAEL ACCUSED OF CYBERATTACKS IN PAST

This is not the first time Israel has been accused of a mass digital cyberattack. In 2011, a sophisticated cyberattack targetted Iran's nuclear programme and infected the industrial control systems of its Natanz uranium enrichment facility. It was designed to cause physical damage to centrifuges by altering their speed while reporting normal operations to operators, leading to significant setbacks in Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

Israel, along with the United States, was widely accused of being behind the attack. Reports suggested that Israel’s military intelligence, working with the US National Security Agency (NSA), developed Stuxnet as part of a covert campaign to hinder Iran's nuclear program without resorting to direct military action.

Additionally, Israel has faced accusations of cyber operations against regional adversaries like Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as broader cyber-espionage activities. These actions are often framed within the context of national security and defence against perceived threats.

However, Israel rarely acknowledges direct involvement in these cyberattacks, maintaining ambiguity in its cyber warfare strategy.