On Tuesday, it was mid-afternoon in Israel when a synchronized attack, likely carried out by the Mossad, detonated pagers from Beirut to Damascus carried by Hezbollah members.
The Jerusalem Post reported the number of casualties was approximately 2,800, including 200 seriously injured and about 10 people dead.
Camera footage from a hospital, posted on social media, showed men with gruesome wounds to their hands, face, stomach, and legs.
Hezbollah, which means “Party of God,” operates in Lebanon as a political party and a well-armed military force. It is considered to be a proxy of Iran which funds it.
Reuters, the news agency, reported in a July story Hezbollah was using low-tech technology such as pagers after it grew alarmed over Israel's electronic warfare capabilities.
Jerusalem Post editors predict war in Lebanon
A related article by the Post, described as “analysis” by editor Herb Keinon, pointed out the mass attack came after the security cabinet released a state hours before the attack. The statement said a new objective is “returning the residents of the North securely to their homes.”
The only way those displaced Israelis, 60,000 in all, can return to their homes is if Lebanon is no longer firing rockets on them, Keinon writes.
A second analysis by the Post, written by its senior military correspondent, also predicts war. That article, published a day before the pager attacks, speculated that a “full-scale war” is possible against Hezbollah because the IDF eliminated the final battalion of Hamas fighters, located in Rafah, August 21. That military victory allows the IDF to pivot to a war in the north, which is expected to be more difficult.
A second factor pointing to a possible military campaign in Lebanon, the article states, is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu feeling more confident in his military leaders. Concerned about casualties, the prime minister was pleased with an August 25 military campaign that took out Hezbollah rocket launchers and repelled drone attacks against IDF military bases.
Pager attack was ‘good news’
Just how Israel was able to detonate the pagers is a source of speculation. One theory is the batteries were overheated to explode.
A second theory is the pagers were filled with explosives before they reached their Hezbollah customers.
In a post on X, Israel expert Amir Tsafati mentioned both theories and speculated Israel could have used both the pager battery and explosives to detonate the devices.
"The results are that we are seeing this unprecedented attack on the world's strongest terrorist organization," he said.
Without knowing yet how Israel carried out the attack, national security expert Bob Maginnis tells AFN he wasn’t surprised Israel pulled it off. Israel, he says, has a “deep understanding” of its enemies, including Hezbollah and Iran.
“So this is good news,” he concludes.
