All the technological mysteries surrounding the pager and walkie-talkie attacks on Hezbollah

Just one day after the explosions that rocked Lebanon, with thousands of Hezbollah “buses” exploding in a coordinated manner, new similar incidents have occurred in the south of the country and in the suburbs of the capital, Beirut. One of these explosions took place near a funeral organized by the armed group, and all eyes are once again turning to the Israeli secret services as potentially responsible for the events.

Now, instead of small devices like ‘you are looking for them’, which exploded according to initial reports and the eyewitnesses are walkie-talkies and even household appliances, larger and therefore with more space to hide a greater quantity of explosives. The method seems similar to yesterday’s events, even if the first images suggest a greater destructive power.

According to SkyNewsAfter the first explosions, Hezbollah members present at the funeral of four people “collected all the walkie-talkies and removed the batteries.” Like pagers, these devices are used in place of mobile phones because they are not connected to the Internet and are harder to track, but are accessible via radio signals. Now, Any battery-powered device appears likely to be used as an explosive device..

What we know

After yesterday’s events, intelligence sources claim that Israel has planted explosives in Hezbollah’s Taiwan-made pagers. The source is believed to be a batch of 5,000 pagers delivered to Hezbollah commanders five months ago, which were allegedly rigged to explode upon receiving a specific message. “Some people felt that the pagers were getting hot and threw them away before they exploded,” eyewitnesses said in statements collected by the The Wall Street Journal.

Overheating a lithium battery can cause it to explode, but pagers contain tiny batteries that alone should not be capable of causing serious injury, amputations, or death. According to the latest information, Israeli intelligence intervened in Hezbollah’s supply chain and, at some point before or after they left the factory, loaded up to 20 grams of PETN, an explosive material, into the batteries, causing them to explode after increasing the battery’s temperature.

Initial reports identified Taiwanese company Gold Apollo as responsible for the shipment, but the Taiwanese government and the company itself issued a press release stating that it had not exported pagers to Lebanon in recent years. It did, however, license the manufacture of its AP924 model to the Hungarian company BAC, based in Budapest, which, according to photos circulating on social media yesterday, appears to match the one used by Hezbollah members. This Hungarian company is reportedly responsible for shipping goods to Lebanon via Iran.

The specific model is a rugged pager (highly resistant to shocks, water, dust, temperatures…) with a battery sufficient for 85 days and capable of receiving text messages up to 100 characters.

Behind all the explosions that occur in Lebanon are hidden, in one way or another, lithium-ion batteries, responsible for powering millions of devices such as mobile phones, laptops or small household appliances.

These store a lot of energy in a small space and are highly flammable. If the energy is released uncontrollably, thermal runaway occurs, which can convert some internal components of the battery into flammable and toxic gases. Chemical reactions can cause explosions, such as those that occurred in Spain with some electric scooters. However, the safety of this electronic component has improved in recent years and a tiny percentage of batteries explode.

What we don’t know

For now, Israel remains silent on its possible responsibility for the attack. It does not appear that other international actors could be behind such a move, whether for reasons of technological sophistication or geopolitical interest. For its part, The Mossad has provided ample evidence over the past few decades of its ability to of such a risky and complex operation.

In fact, the case is not unlike that of Yehie Ayash, known as The Engineer, head of the military wing of Hamas and a bomb expert, assassinated by Israel in 1996. The method used then by the Israeli secret services was to send him through a friend a cell phone trapIt contained 50 grams of remotely detonated explosives capable of causing immediate death.

At this time, the model of walkie-talkie that is said to have exploded today is unknown, and the method used by the attacker to blow up everyone at once. If the interception of the supply chain of the “researchers” was complex, the introduction of explosives and a system to take advantage of the composition of the lithium batteries to detonate them seems a much larger, coordinated operation and even suggests the presence of agents or infiltrators on the ground.

News in update

We are working to expand this information. Soon, the editorial staff of EL ESPAÑOL will offer you an update of all the data on this news.

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