The Israeli government did not tamper with the Hezbollah devices that exploded, defense and intelligence officials say. It manufactured them as part of an elaborate ruse.
In Lebanon, as Israel picked off senior Hezbollah commandos with targeted assassinations, their leader came to a conclusion: If Israel was going high-tech, Hezbollah would go low. It was clear, a distressed Hezbollah chief, Hassan Nasrallah, said, that Israel was using cellphone networks to pinpoint the locations of his operatives.
. . .
Israeli intelligence officials saw an opportunity.
Even before Mr. Nasrallah decided to expand pager usage, Israel had put into motion a plan to establish a shell company that would pose as an international pager producer.
By all appearances, B.A.C. Consulting was a Hungary-based company that was under contract to produce the devices on behalf of a Taiwanese company, Gold Apollo. In fact, it was part of an Israeli front, according to three intelligence officers briefed on the operation. They said at least two other shell companies were created as well to mask the real identities of the people creating the pagers: Israeli intelligence officers.
You know the more that I think about it, the more I realize that if the CIA or NSA were tasked with eliminating Hezbollah using the same vulnerability, they probably would have set up the same shell company, but install a hardware wire backdoor into every device which would let them do insane espionage or setup widespread jamming or even fake intel, complelty remotely too.
They already have so many systems that do similar things, it wouldn’t even be that difficult for them to pull off and cause Hezbollah to disintegrate by having them run around falling into easily laid traps.
But of course this is Israel, so they went with explosives to maximize that sweet civilian collateral like they’re trying to top the bang for buck warcrime leaderboard.
I’m left wondering how they were triggered. Were they all just set on a timer? Or were they able to somehow remotely send a signal? And if they were able to send a signal, were they also able to intercept messages?
It’s a device designed to receive signals ;p
I think for the pagers the consensus is that a particular code would have been sent to the devices.
It’s a device designed to receive signals
Yes but only specific signals. That’s the whole point.
From the sounds of witness reports, it was either 1 message setting off a 5-10 second timer, or it was 2 messages in a similar spacing. It was designed to get someone to look at the pager before it blew up in their face. Apparently doctors have been dealing with it blinding shit tons of people.
Probably amongst the most impressive and precisely targeted strikes against a terror organization in history when taking the scale into consideration. Mossad is one of the most inventive intelligence agencies out there. They do not mess around.
If it is enough to dissuade Hezbollah escalating to an all out war in Lebanon, the few tragic collaterals pale in comparison to the number of prevented deaths.
In Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, in the village of Saraain, one young girl, Fatima Abdullah, had just come home from her first day of fourth grade when she heard her father’s pager begin to beep, her aunt said. She picked up the device to bring it to him and was holding it when it exploded, killing her. Fatima was 9.
And
By the end of the day, at least a dozen people were dead and more than 2,700 were wounded, many of them maimed. And the following day, 20 more people were killed and hundreds wounded when walkie-talkies in Lebanon also began mysteriously exploding. Some of the dead and wounded were Hezbollah members, but others were not; four of the dead were children.
Both are war crimes, and while Israel hasn’t formally declared war. Their defense minister is calling this a war.
But you can’t use indiscriminate attacks, and you can’t aim for maiming instead of killing.
Shit like this just makes more terrorists, which at this point is pretty obvious is Israels goal. They do t want to “win a war” they want to create a permanent boogey man so Israels current unpopular leaders get to hold.o to power a little longer.
Bibi and his people will keep doing this shit, because it’s the only way they keep power.
They want war and chaos
They want war and chaos
What’s your view on Hezbollah launching rockets and mortars over the border?
Whataboutism.
Two groups can be bad at the same time.
They eliminated 2800 terrorists and only killed 20 civilians. That’s the most successful attack on an entrenched gorilla force in the history of humanity.
Hezbollah and Hamas love to use civilians, children, and humanitarian aid as shields. Committing war crimes to stop the people committing war crimes is an odd argument.
This was a much more humane attack than firing RPGs from a hospital for example.
They eliminated 2800 terrorists
Israel said they’re terrorists…
They also called American citizens who protest the American government providing arms for a genocide terrorists…
Would you be ok with them blowing up US college students for using the first amendment?
It’s more like can we pick off those 2 or 3 people in that crowd of protesters that are about to do serious harm? If so…yea…do it.
Kill one save a thousand
/s
But we don’t know if they did…
IDF claims it only hit targets, which we know isn’t true, and people standing next to them were blown up too
I just don’t understand why anyone would just take the IDFs word, they lie constantly
Ideally you don’t take their word, you send journalists and international investigators to the scene to verify.
What you definitely do not do however is take Hezbollah’s word.
The same journalists and international investigators that Israel has been blatantly murdering left and right?
They kill journalists and investigators too.
Ideally you don’t take their word, you send journalists and international investigators to the scene to verify.
Which has happened and they have shown that obviously if someone blows up while walking down the street, the explosion doesn’t magically know not to injure anyone else
Weird…you’d think you’d have a problem when the other side does it and takes out only non combatants in a crowd.
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Israel is a state sponsor of terror and should be condemned as such.
Everyone targeted was a member of an internationally recognised terrorist organisation, and there was no reason for non-members to ever have the pagers. There are questions about rules of engagement, but one thing this operation wasn’t technically is terrorism.
These devices exploded in public places without regard for collateral damage to civilians. It is yet another war crime by Israel in addition to being an act of terror.
Also it’s just not true that everyone was a member of Hezbollah. These devices are used by medical staff in hospitals. Israel has form in targeting doctors and hospitals.
You cannot target with an explosive detonated at random. Lemme detonate a bomb next to your kid on a bus and see how you fucking feel when I tell you he was collateral and untargetted. See if that makes you feel better.
Yeah if I first killed your kid by firing some rockets at its playground, I don’t think you’re going to be so stoic anymore
And what about the guy who killed my son? What about his son the day before?
Exactly. I’m glad you see the problem