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Walkie-Talkies, Solar Energy Systems Explode Across Lebanon in Second Wave After Pager Attack (axios.com) 482

An anonymous reader shares a report: Israel blew up thousands of two-way personal radios used by Hezbollah members in Lebanon in a second wave of an intelligence operation that started on Tuesday with the explosions of pager devices, two sources with knowledge of the operation told Axios. The second wave of clandestine attacks is another serious security breach in Hezbollah's ranks and increases the pressure on the militant Lebanese group.

Lebanon's official news agency reported that at least three people were killed and dozens wounded in the explosions across the country. The walkie-talkies were booby-trapped in advance by Israeli intelligence services and then delivered to Hezbollah as part of the militia's emergency communications system, which was supposed to be used during a war with Israel, the sources said.
Associated Press reports: Lebanon's official news agency reports that solar energy systems exploded in homes in several areas of Beirut and in southern Lebanon, wounding at least one girl.
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Walkie-Talkies, Solar Energy Systems Explode Across Lebanon in Second Wave After Pager Attack

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  • Another reminder (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Wednesday September 18, 2024 @10:32AM (#64796081)

    of the shame I feel being a member of the human species.

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      I have managed to disassociate. But yes, as groups, humans are utter crap.

    • by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      Can't we carve out the Middle East and have Musk move it to Mars ... or Pluto? (And take Musk with you.)

      • by Xarius ( 691264 )

        All of the problems in the Middle East (and lots of other places) are exactly because western powers carved them up decades ago in the first place :/ My (UK) government was almost entirely responsible for slicing up the middle east in a way that led to all of this,..

  • Mossad: I'm sorry about the pagers. Wait, you thought you could use walkie-talkies instead?
  • Door bells?

    Motorcycles?

    Penguins on top of TV sets?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

  • It is hard for me to believe that none of these devices required any service in their normal, non-explodey, use. It is hard to believe that a, even halfway, decent technician would have failed to notice the "non-battery" looking thing in the radio and pager. It just seems weird to me that on one noticed.
    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      My guess is they ones that exploded were only delivered a few days ago and that there probably was some help from the people shipping them. And no quality assurance on the target side. Hence a one-time thing.

    • by kackle ( 910159 )
      They aren't that old yet?
  • by Luckyo ( 1726890 ) on Wednesday September 18, 2024 @10:39AM (#64796133)

    The interesting part here is that Party of Allah has failed to pull its existing communications equipment for checks in the wake of first attack. That signals extreme failure of either top command being able to draw conclusions from the first attack, or low level commanders being unable to execute command to do so, or both.

    It's starting to seem that either the preceding pager attack critically damaged the command structure of Party of Allah, or alternatively it got complacent in the wake of bombarding North Israel for so long without sizeable counter attacks coming at them.

    • Re:The interest part (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Savage-Rabbit ( 308260 ) on Wednesday September 18, 2024 @11:09AM (#64796283)

      The interesting part here is that Party of Allah has failed to pull its existing communications equipment for checks in the wake of first attack. That signals extreme failure of either top command being able to draw conclusions from the first attack, or low level commanders being unable to execute command to do so, or both.

      It's starting to seem that either the preceding pager attack critically damaged the command structure of Party of Allah, or alternatively it got complacent in the wake of bombarding North Israel for so long without sizeable counter attacks coming at them.

      Really? Even the US forces with all their resources could not check their entire communications equipment inventory for booby traps in 24 hours. Furthermore, Hezbollah haven't even dented their rocket inventory yet with what they have launched into Israel so far. Their ongoing 'bombardment' is a tiny preview of their most thoroughly obsolete unguided rockets, not the ones upgraded with Iranian GNSS and INS guidance kits. What's far more interesting in all of this is that the Israelis have given terrorists everywhere an excellent idea for how to terrorise entire nation states or even continents for weeks or months on end. Buy any variety of products people carry with them from mobile phones, to toys, handbags and such, install a small amount of explosives with a timer and re-introduce the stuff into the supply chain. If the timers are set to run long enough, entire container loads of these product-bombs could be literally everywhere by the time they start to go off and the bomb builders would be long gone.

    • by Gilmoure ( 18428 )

      If inkjet printers go tomorrow- a lot of folks may just assume it's another stupid printer trick.

  • is just dunking on Hezbollah as a pointless flex. Which devices are gonna blow up tomorrow?
    • I'm sure this will lead to a peaceful outcome and put a damper on the fighting.

      /s

      • There’s no “putting a damper” on this fighting. Two groups have disagreements. Both groups decide that violence is how they want to achieve their desired outcome. Both groups willingly enter into combat with each other as a mechanism to decide the outcome.’

        This state of human affairs is called “war” except nowadays everybody calls the other side “terrorist” or some nonsense like that.

        Hamas and Hezbollah are both at war with Israel. All sides are pulling
    • Time to buy a new toaster. Or is it?
    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      They probably had the walkie-talkies in place for some time and figured they would now lose them anyways,

  • by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Wednesday September 18, 2024 @10:52AM (#64796203)

    There are no good guys or heroes in this fight. This is the rare case of both sides being equally shitty with no end in sight. Jesus himself could show up tomorrow and they'd crucify him a second time for being too liberal. Mohammed wouldn't exactly improve things either.

    You want to talk about deficits and spending? Stop giving billions to Israel. We've already funded them to the tune of $158 billion since 1948. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org].

  • I guess Mossad's message is "if you didn't bother to audit all your hardware yesterday evening, perhaps you'll do it this evening. No? Well then let's see what explodes tomorrow."

  • I admit, it's a pretty fucking funny way to whack terrorists compared to a drone strike. But there's no way it actually accomplishes anything.
  • When a military orders products, do they not usually do some level of inspection prior to dissemination of that product to their soldiers? I mean, where I come from that is normal, to inspect bits and bobs before issuing them to troops, but, I guess Hezbollah did not otherwise they'd have seen this mass of explosives in the Walkie Talkie's.

    Oddly enough, when Hezbollah or Hamas attacks, many are silent, but when Israel does, woe betide the Jews!

    Yes, I am not a fan of how Israel treats their Muslim popula

  • by nycsubway ( 79012 ) on Wednesday September 18, 2024 @11:39AM (#64796457) Homepage

    The Israeli government definitely read that book cover to cover. They are doing a fine job implenting their skills.

    It's an impressive feat of espionage and infiltration, but how does it benefit Israel? They killed 35,000 palestinian civilians, and now there's a generation of Palestinians who will "never forget." They've now injured thousands of Lebanese, and that generate will also "never forget." Israel has made more enemies, it hasn't made itself safer.

    • They were attacked, they counter-attacked. It's not like they were blowing up people in the period prior to the most recent events.

      Not hitting back just means the people who are hitting you maintain full capability to continue hitting you.

  • by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) on Wednesday September 18, 2024 @11:47AM (#64796519) Journal
    If Israel can do something like this (compromise the mass production of these devices with explosives and a way to denotate them) to Hezbollah/Lebanon, then what's to stop them from doing it to anyone for any reason whatsoever? What's to stop any government from doing it?
    I seriously have ethical and even moral problems with this. It amounts to an indiscriminate attack because the effects aren't limited to just the 'targets', there is collateral damage from the detonations. Really, this is something I'd associate with a terrorist attack as opposed to 'official military action'.

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