Lebanon hit again with exploding devices

An exploded walkie-talkie in Lebanon

(Image credit: Suleiman Amhaz / Anadolu via Getty Images)

published 19 September 2024

What happened

At least 20 people were killed in Lebanon Wednesday and more than 450 injured after Hezbollah-issued walkie-talkies detonated, the government said. Lebanon was still reeling from thousands of exploding Hezbollah pagers that killed 12 people, including two young children, and wounded about 2,800 on Tuesday. The sophisticated remote blasts were widely attributed to Israel, which hasn't confirmed or denied its involvement.

The scale of the sabotage "deeply unsettled" Hezbollah, The Wall Street Journal said. The explosions maimed hundreds of its fighters, revealed serious security breaches and "exposed the identities of thousands of Hezbollah operatives, many of whom worked covertly — a coup for Israeli intelligence and a likely surprise for some Hezbollah members' relatives and neighbors."

The explosives-laced pagers, from an Israeli intelligence front company in Hungary, "began shipping to Lebanon in the summer of 2022 in small numbers," The New York Times said, citing 12 officials briefed on the operation. Production ramped up after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah ordered militants to ditch their phones and carry the low-tech communication devices in February. The exploding walkie-talkies had "new batteries that arrived in a recent shipment" and were "distributed to a narrower range of Hezbollah members," the Journal said.

The "potentially indiscriminate casualties" from exploding handheld devices in homes, shops, cars, cafes — "where the holder of the pager happened to be" — raised concerns, The Associated Press said. "Weaponizing an object used by civilians is strictly prohibited" under international law, said Mary Ellen O'Connell, a law professor at Notre Dame, to the outlet.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.