By Shahrokh Saei
TEHRAN- Israel not only massacres Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank but it also has a long history of carrying out deadly operations in countries such as Lebanon and Syria.
In addition to targeting civilians and resistance fighters, Israel employs electronic warfare tactics to quench its thirst for blood in Palestine and beyond.
The deadly en masse explosion of pagers in Lebanon has demonstrated that Israel has a complete disregard for the lives of civilians.
Thousands of people, including members of the Hezbollah resistance movement, were injured and over a dozen others were killed on Tuesday after pagers used by Lebanese people simultaneously blew up.
As people were shopping or sitting in cafes or driving cars and motorcycles, the pagers in their hands or pockets started heating up and then exploding.
Pager bombings suggest that Hezbollah’s attack on Unit 8200 HQ near Tel Aviv was successful and effectiveAccording to the Associated Press, at overwhelmed hospitals, wounded were rushed in on stretchers, some with missing hands, faces partly blown away or gaping holes at their hips and legs.
More communication devices also exploded in Beirut on Wednesday causing further injuries and deaths.
The pager bombings have been widely attributed to Israel but the regime has not officially claimed responsibility.
A US official said Tel Aviv briefed the United States on Tuesday after the conclusion of the operation, AP reported. The report said the person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the information publicly.
Incriminating evidence
Strong evidence has implicated Israel in the abhorrent act. According to the Reuters news agency, Israel’s Mossad planted a small amount of explosives inside 5,000 Taiwan-made pagers imported by Hezbollah before the detonations on Tuesday.
Citing informed sources, it reported that the plot appears to have been many months in the making.
The sources also told Reuters that the devices had been modified by Israel’s spy service “at the production level”.
“The Mossad injected a board inside of the device that has explosive material that receives a code. It’s very hard to detect it through any means. Even with any device or scanner,” they said.
According to the Reuters report, 3,000 of the pagers exploded when a coded message was sent to them, simultaneously activating the explosives.
Blame game
Gold Apollo, the Taiwanese manufacturer of the pagers has said the devices were made by European firm BAC based in Hungary’s capital Budapest.
“According to the cooperation agreement, we authorize BAC to use our brand trademark for product sales in designated regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are solely the responsibility of BAC,” the Taiwanese tech industry said in a statement without showing any proof of the agreement.
The detonation of communication devices in Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday injured thousands of people and killed over 20 others including children The statement indicates that the company is shirking its responsibilities.
Taiwan and the US have maintained a strong friendship and vital partnership. The CIA also maintains strong connections with Mossad.
Considering the Reuters report regarding the amounts of explosives secreted in the pagers by Mossad, Taiwan and the United States are Israel’s partners in crime.
US media have acknowledged that Israel has used American bombs during its war of genocide in Gaza which has claimed the lives of more than 41,000 Palestinians since October 7.
Both Washington and Tel Aviv also want to deter Hezbollah from continuing its attacks against Israel which are carried out in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Hence, the Israeli and US spy agencies may have painted a joint scenario to deliver a blow to Hezbollah through the detonation of the pagers.
Revenge on civilians
The tragic incident also comes three weeks after Hezbollah hit the Israeli military’s intelligence and surveillance agency, Unit 8200, near Tel Aviv that left nearly 100 casualties. It was a sensitive and strategic Israeli site that was targeted by the Lebanese resistance movement. That was in response to the Israeli assassination of Fuad Shukr, a senior Hezbollah commander, on July 30.
Hezbollah humiliated Israel by targeting its strategic military base and the regime took revenge against Lebanese people through the explosion of pagers.
Hezbollah vows revenge
Hezbollah has blamed Israel for the Tuesday pager bombings and pledged to persist in its defense of the Lebanese nation and the people in Gaza.
“The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon will continue today, as in all the past days, its blessed operations to support Gaza, its people, and its resistance, and to defend Lebanon, its people, and its sovereignty. This path is continuous and separate from the difficult reckoning that the criminal enemy must await for the massacre it committed Tuesday against our people, our families, and our mujahideen in Lebanon. This is another reckoning that will come, God willing.”
The movement added, “What happened yesterday (Tuesday) will increase our determination and resolve to continue on the path of jihad and resistance, and we are absolutely certain of God Almighty’s promise to the faithful, patient mujahideen of victory, God willing.”
Israeli war crime
The Lebanese government also condemned the pager explosions.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati blamed Israel for the blasts, saying they represented a “serious violation of Lebanese sovereignty and a crime by all standards”.
Lebanon’s UN envoy Hadi Hachem also said Israel’s detonation of devices in Lebanon and Syria amounted to “aggression which rises to a war crime”.
Telecom Trojan
The pager explosions are redolent of the plots that Israel has hatched to execute targeted killings via infiltrating the telecom sector.
Yahya Ayyash, a senior Hamas field commander, was one of the first victims of the Israeli military’s strategy of using cellphone data.
Ayyash was killed in Gaza City on January 5, 1996, when his cell phone exploded during his weekly phone call to his father in the West Bank. The Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, intercepted the call, confirmed his identity, and detonated the explosives remotely.
Ayyash was widely known as “the engineer” for his bomb-making skills.
In January 2024, a drone strike in the southern suburbs of Dahiyeh in the Lebanese capital Beirut also killed senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri.
According to Lebanese media, he was killed in an Israeli drone attack on Hamas' office alongside six others.
The office was furnished with at least one computer with a Wi-Fi connection, potentially giving Israeli forces a method of locating the men.
“Once the laptop started, the strike hit the office,” senior Lebanese officials said.
The 57-year-old was the deputy head of the Hamas political bureau who helped establish the resistance group's military wing, the Qassam Brigades.
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