Israel targeted about five thousand ordinary Lebanese citizens by exploding pagers and other devices. Among them were doctors, Nurses, From hawkers to other businessmen, everyone was involved. Of course, many Hezbollah soldiers were also targeted. But the vast majority of those killed and injured were ordinary people, Who had no connection to Hezbollah or its activities.
Now it is clear that the explosions in pagers, walkie-talkies, radio equipment, solar panels etc. in Lebanon were not the result of a cyber attack. Rather, small explosives were already planted in these devices, which were triggered through remote instructions. Explosives were probably planted in other devices in the same way. The initial discussion was that the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad made arrangements to convert these simple devices into bombs by infiltrating the Hungary plant of the Taiwanese company that makes pagers. But the information given by the American newspaper New York Times through its detailed investigative report has revealed a completely new story.
According to this, in 2020, Israel killed several commanders of Lebanon-based non-governmental paramilitary organization Hezbollah in targeted attacks. Then Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrullah ordered to stop the use of mobile phones within his organization. The reason was that through mobile signals, Israel used to track the commanders and locate them and carry out precise attacks. Nasrullah requested the commanders as well as the common people of Lebanon to stop using mobile phones and start using pagers for mutual communication, which cannot be tracked by GPS. Nasrullah had said that pagers may be an outdated technology, but it is necessary to make this sacrifice of convenience ‘in view of the capabilities of the enemy’.
The New York Times has reported that Israel then started looking for ways to gain access to pagers. For this, a shell company was created, which promoted itself internationally as a pager manufacturer. This part of the New York Times report is important: “On the surface, everyone thinks that BCA Consulting is a Hungarian company. Taiwanese company Gold Apollo had signed a contract with this company to manufacture pagers. But three intelligence officials, while giving information about the latest incident, said that in reality it is a part of the Israeli front. They said that at least two other shell companies were also created to provide cover to the people who manufactured the pagers – Israeli intelligence officials.
BCA also took orders from other general customers for whom standard pagers were made. But the company had one important customer: Hezbollah, for whom it manufactured special pagers. These pagers were produced separately and their batteries contained the explosive PETN.” (How Israel Built a Modern-Day Trojan Horse: Exploding Pagers – The New York Times (nytimes.com))
What happened next is now known to the world. But some facts are noteworthy. Israel targeted about five thousand ordinary Lebanese citizens by exploding pagers and other devices. They included doctors, nurses, hawkers and other businessmen. Of course, many Hezbollah soldiers were also targeted. But the vast majority of those killed and injured were ordinary people who had no connection with Hezbollah or its activities. Through this action, Israel has succeeded in creating an unprecedented atmosphere of terror in Lebanon.
This Israeli action can be called terrorism in simple and straightforward words. The world has seen such an act of mass terrorism for the first time. Terrorism is the most heinous crime against humanity. It is surprising that America and its allies who raise their voice against terrorism do not see this barbaric face of Israel. They have even refused to condemn this action. Their hypocritical face on democracy and human rights has already been exposed before the world, now it is obvious that the world will see their face tainted on terrorism as well.
However, this action has added a new dimension to the ongoing war in West Asia. Many experts agree that the latest Israeli actions have brought the region closer to a regional war.
Many other far-reaching consequences of this incident are also possible. The world is already facing the challenge of division of technology and technical standards. The division is between American and Chinese technology. Both these countries are preparing their own standards in Artificial Intelligence. It is said that an AI tool operated by one of these standards cannot be operated by the other standard. There is even talk of division of the Internet. This incident is expected to speed up this process.
Companies in the American supply chain are linked to the production of the pagers used in the attack. This gives the message that this supply chain is being used (or can be used) by America’s allies to target their enemies. On this occasion, the Federal Trade Commission in America itself has again confirmed in a report that nine American companies like Google, Facebook, Whatsapp, X (Twitter) etc. are stealing people’s personal data on a large scale. (Social media and online video firms are conducting ‘vast surveillance’ on users, FTC finds. Technology. The Guardian). The question is whether this data is also being used for military purposes?
Israel has broken yet another limit of war by using mass terrorism. But it has also opened the way for other powers to use such methods in the future. It is worth noting that what happened in Lebanon on 17 and 18 September added a new chapter to the narrative of the war going on there. But this is not the last chapter.
Hassan Nasrullah then addressed Israel in a broadcast and said, ‘Today you should be happy, celebrate. But the time to come will be when you will cry.’ His comment is important – ‘This attack will have its own punishment and its own special retaliation. We will move towards new methods and a new kind of confrontation with the enemy will begin. They should know that we are not people who will be defeated, broken or discouraged.’ The ominous signals contained in this warning are clear.