Israel's suspected mobile device offensive pushes region closer to chaos

After the mass explosion of pagers and walkie-talkies assigned to Hezbollah operatives across Lebanon, is all-out regional war next, or will Israel and its neighbors step back from the brink?

Illustrative collage of a white dove dropping an exploding pager
(Image credit: Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images)

At 3:30 pm on Tuesday, hundreds of pagers across Lebanon began beeping. A few seconds later, the devices — all believed to belong to members of the Lebanese Shiite Muslim political party Hezbollah — exploded. At least nine people were killed and thousands more wounded by the powerful blasts which ripped through homes and public spaces alike, said Lebanese officials. One day later, during a public funeral for some of those killed, a second wave of remote detonations rocked the already anxious nation, as walkie-talkies and other portable electronic devices exploded in unison. At least 14 people were killed and hundreds more hurt following Wednesday's detonations, said the Lebanese Health Ministry.

While not officially confirmed as such, the pager bombs are widely understood to be the result of an intricate Israeli intelligence operation involving intercepted devices implanted with explosives before being dispersed to Hezbollah personnel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not address the operation directly in a brief statement posted on X, and instead reiterated his promise to bring home the approximately 60,000 Israeli residents who were evacuated from the country's north as a result of continual Hezbollah rocket fire.

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Rafi Schwartz, The Week US

Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.