Lethality Of Explosive Pagers Compares Favorably To Early Police Tasers

Israeli intentions were injurious, not fatal

Remnant of a pager bomb

“The detonations started around 3:30 p.m. (1230 GMT) in the southern suburbs of Beirut known as Dahiyeh and the eastern Bekaa valley — strongholds of the anti-Israel militant group Hezbollah,” Reuters reported yesterday. Over the course of an hour, thousands of AP924 pagers exploded across Lebanon and into Syria. They belonged to Hezbollah personnel, many of whom picked up their devices to see the incoming message in the seconds before the delayed explosions. As a result, common injuries include severed hands and fingers as well as blinded eyes. Mojtaba Amini, Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, reportedly lost one eye and suffered injury to the other. He was flown to Tehran for treatment. Lebanese officials say that one 8-year old girl was killed along with at least eleven Hezbollah personnel. Videos hit social media of pagers exploding in a grocery market, on the street, or in vehicles.

Within an hour of the explosions, the Associated Press reported that Hezbollah had obtained 5,000 brand-new pagers after secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah “ordered members in February to stop using cellphones, warning they could be tracked by Israeli intelligence.” Although the pager brand is owned by Taiwan-based maker Gold Apollo, the actual manufacturer was BAC Consulting KFT in Budapest, Hungary, according to TIME. The New York Times reported last night that Israeli operatives inserted “one or two ounces” of powerful explosive into the pagers somewhere in the supply chain in a third country. Nasrallah’s order to “break or bury” their cell phones and switch to an older, less traceable technology has backfired on thousands of his people, both fighters and administrators.

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