It's like something out of one of those comedy/action movies with plenty of blood where the good guys triumph, and the bad guys die bloody.
Indeed, it reminds me of the ending of "The Kingsman," where all the bad guys with the tiny explosives implanted in their heads die at once when the explosives are activated and their heads explode.
Somebody or some nation (you get three guesses, and the first two don't count) sent Hezbollah a gift: hundreds of brand-new, state-of-the-art pagers. At mid-morning, the devices exploded at basically the same time.
Even more glorious, the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was injured by his pager, although he's expected to live. Lebanon's health minister says the exploding pagers killed nine and wounded more than 2,700.
One device exploded in a Lebanese supermarket.
🔴🇱🇧 This is the moment a pager exploded in a man’s bag as he shopped for fruit in a Beirut supermarket.
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) September 17, 2024
More than 1,000 people are believed to have been injured.
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Video Credit: RogueTr51010193/X pic.twitter.com/75hFSANpLK
Assuming there was not a problem with defective manufacturing, it could be an incredible demonstration of Israeli capabilities, although we don't have confirmation that Israel was involved. But if Israel were responsible, its biggest win would be psychological. How many Hezbollah fighters are looking at their phones, TVs, cars, washing machines — anything with electronics — worrying if any one of them will explode?
Some in the U.S. might say that this isn't the right time for this kind of spectacle. With the war in Gaza still raging, Israel can ill-afford a war with Hezbollah. Would this kind of provocation set off another war in the region?
The apparent attack comes amid growing concerns that tensions along the Lebanese border are in danger of escalating, as the daily exchange of cross-border fire grows in intensity and efforts to strike a deal to pause the fighting in Gaza fail to bear fruit.
Israel’s government is under increasing pressure to return tens of thousands of evacuees to their homes in the north by silencing Hezbollah’s rockets and drones. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday that dimming prospects for diplomacy were leaving military action as the only alternative.
Hezbollah nodded to what it called threatening speeches and comments from Israel and said its forces were at the highest level of readiness to defend Lebanon.
“It sends a significant message to Hezbollah leadership that, ‘We can get you anywhere,’” said Randa Slim, director of the Conflict Resolution and Track II Dialogues Program at the Middle East Institute. “And it very much affects morale.”
“The war on the border is no longer on the border—with this attack, it has expanded into their homes and shopping places around Lebanon,” Slim said.
That kind of blow invites a response. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is still waiting for the response from the "Axis of Resistance" to Israel's assassination in Tehran of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. As these heavy blows continue to fall on Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran, the "Resistance" is shown to be a paper tiger.
Michael Horowitz, the head of intelligence at Le Beck International, a security and risk management consulting firm based in the Middle East, said the cause was likely malware that caused the pagers’ batteries to overheat and explode or a charge placed in the devices and detonated remotely.
“Either way, this is a very sophisticated attack,” he said. “Particularly if this is a physical breach, as this would mean Israel has access to the producer of those devices. This may be part of the message being sent here.”
"Whom can we trust?" Hezbollah is asking. They will take a long time to answer that question.
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