Hezbollah has been rocked in back-to-back days with exploding electronic devices, including pagers and walkie-talkies.
On Tuesday, about a dozen people were killed and approximately 2,800 injured when a batch of pagers that Hezbollah operatives were carrying exploded across Lebanon and Syria . Subsequently, on Wednesday, more electronic devices, including walkie-talkies , suffered a similar fate.
The terrorist group immediately pointed the finger at Israel, and the elaborate nature of the operation suggests Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, is behind it, but it has not claimed responsibility. Here is what we know so far.
How did Israel pull it off and why now?
The pagers, on Tuesday, began to heat up and then exploded in the pockets or hands of the Hezbollah operatives who had them. Several videos surfaced on social media seemingly showing contained explosions, though Israel could not anticipate whether any of the Hezbollah beeper holders would be near civilians at the time they launched the attack.
BAC Consulting KFT, based in Budapest, Hungary, manufactured the AR-924 pagers, the make of which has been identified as the AR-924, according to Gold Apollo, a Taiwanese company, that has a licensing agreement with BAC.
Gold Apollo clarified that "this model is produced and sold by BAC," explaining that the company "only provides the brand trademark authorization and is not involved in the design or manufacturing of this product."
One of the main questions that arose as the news of the explosions emerged was why, presumably, Israel would carry out this attack now and whether it was an initial move ahead of a strong military act.
Multiple U.S. officials told Axios that Israel began to fear that Hezbollah could have uncovered the plot and went ahead with it before the group could prevent it from happening. It is unclear what the intended timeline was for this operation had there not been concern about it being thwarted.
Walkie-talkie follow-up attack
HEZBOLLAH HIT BY SECOND WAVE OF BOOBY-TRAPPED COMMUNICATIONS DEVICES
Additional explosions occurred Wednesday in Lebanon, though details are still emerging on the latest ones. Initial reporting indicates that more Hezbollah hand-held devices exploded, though details on casualties are still unclear. Some of the secondary explosions occurred at the funerals for those killed in Tuesday's attacks.
Lebanese health ministry officials announced that at least nine people were killed and 300 were injured by the second wave of device explosions on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press . Local media reported several explosions in Beirut and Dahiyeh, a Hezbollah -dominated suburb of the capital.
On Wednesday, Hezbollah's walkie-talkies detonated, according to Axios . Israel was able to sabotage them long in advance, and Hezbollah intended to use them as part of the group’s emergency communications system in the event of an all-out war with the Jewish state.
The second round of blasts will likely further concern Hezbollah militants worried about Israel's intelligence capabilities.
Did the US know anything?
U.S. officials denied responsibility or advanced knowledge of the attack.
"I can tell you that the U.S. was not involved in it," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Tuesday. "The U.S. was not aware of this incident in advance, and at this point, we are gathering information."
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, on Tuesday but Defense Department officials would not say whether they discussed the attack. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is meeting with his counterparts in Egypt on Wednesday and said the bombing is the latest incident making it more difficult to get a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas solidified.
"I don't provide details on when calls are scheduled or when they happen," Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters. "I've given you information here in terms of the nature of that call, and that's all I'm going to be able to provide."
"Time and again" when the mediators believe themselves to be making progress in a ceasefire agreement, "we've seen an event that makes the process more difficult, might derail it," Blinken said, responding to a question about the explosions in Lebanon.
How will Hezbollah respond?
Israel and Hezbollah, the terrorist group based in Lebanon, have engaged in a limited-scope war that has primarily involved the two sides firing cross-border rocket and missile attacks. Officials from both have threatened to escalate the conflict if provoked, while both sides have simultaneously avoided doing just that.
Hezbollah has vowed to avenge the attack, though it is unclear what exactly that could look like and whether it could lead the two closer to a full-scale war.
The conflict between the two, which dates back to the days after Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack, the largest in Israel's existence, has forced the Jewish state to evacuate more than 50,000 people from the northern part of the country due to concerns that Hezbollah could carry out a cross-border raid like Hamas did. Israeli officials have said it is a priority to create conditions that would allow for those civilians to return to their homes.
United Nations Human Rights Chief Volker Türk described the beeper detonations as "unacceptable" and argued, "The fear and terror unleashed is profound."
"Simultaneous targeting of thousands of individuals, whether civilians or members of armed groups, without knowledge as to who was in possession of the targeted devices, their location, and their surroundings at the time of the attack, violates international human rights law and, to the extent applicable, international humanitarian law," he added.
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Similarly, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern that the operation was a preemptive move ahead of a possible Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
“The logic of making all these devices explode is to do it as a preemptive strike before a major military operation,” he said at a press conference shortly after the attack. “So as important as the event in itself … is the indication that this event confirms that there is a serious risk of a dramatic escalation in Lebanon, and everything must be done to avoid that escalation.”
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