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?


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.
נחזיר את תושבי הצפון בביטחה לבתיהם. pic.twitter.com/3Zc22pS6C4September 18, 2024
Netanyahu's promise notwithstanding, where can Israel, Lebanon, and the wider region go from here? After nearly a year of war on its southwestern border, is Israel in the early stages of opening another front to its north?
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A 'tactical success' with 'no clear strategic effect'
The suspected pager sabotage "could have been a brilliant and innovative operation" showcasing that for Israel's "imaginative spy craft planners the sky is really the limit," Yossi Melman said at Haaretz. Instead, the "implementation was wrong, and the whole project is unlikely to live up to its planners' expectations as a strategic game-changer."
The fundamental question "hovering" over the operation, said The Washington Post, is "why now?" With Israeli domestic politics at a boiling point, and international efforts to contain the ongoing violence already engulfing Gaza, observers have been left questioning the "timing of the attack and what it signaled about Israel's intentions in Lebanon." The lack of a wide-scale military follow-up suggests that the "timing wasn't the optimal one," former senior Mossad operative Oded Eilam said to the Post.
The one-two punch of explosive mobile devices was a "tactical success that had no clear strategic effect," The New York Times said. While the operation "impressed many Israelis" in terms of sheer complexity and operational scope, "their core frustration remained: Hezbollah is still entrenched on Israel's northern border, preventing tens of thousands of residents of northern Israel from returning home." To that end, with Netanyahu, it is "hard to tell how much of this whispered campaign is really about military intentions" compared to "domestic politics and the prime minister's constant need to tend to his coalition to keep him in power," The Guardian said.
'Limits, rules, and red lines'
Although longstanding low-grade fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah has intensified in the wake of Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza, the mobile device attacks "eclipse previous provocations and, cutting as it does to the heart of Hezbollah, may force the retaliation that both its leadership and its allies seem to prefer avoiding," Al Jazeera said.
In his first public response to the bombings, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah accused Israel of crossing all "limits, rules, and red lines," calling the attack a "declaration of war." But Nasrallah's tone "indicated that the group will measure its reaction" so as not to "spark a major war with Israel," said the BBC. The attacks may create a "snowballing effect of pressure" for the group, The Jerusalem Post said, however, "Hezbollah is in a position where it will want to weigh its options with Iran and other Iranian-backed proxies, such as the Houthis and militias in Iraq, as to its next steps."
While U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called on "all parties to maintain restraint and avoid escalation on the border between Israel and Lebanon," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has postponed his planned visit to Israel this coming weekend, just days after telling Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant that "priority should be given to reaching a deal to release the hostages held by Hamas and establish a ceasefire in Gaza, and to reach a diplomatic solution on the border with Lebanon that would allow civilians to return to their homes," Axios said.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
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.
-
Why are military experts so interested in Ukraine's drone attack?
TODAY'S BIG QUESTION The Zelenskyy government's massive surprise assault on Russian airfields was a decisive tactical victory — could it also be the start of a new era in autonomous warfare?
-
Gaza Humanitarian Foundation: the group behind controversial new aid programme
The Explainer Deadly shootings and chaotic scenes have been reported at aid sites after US group replaced UN humanitarian organisations
-
The France-Indonesia push for an Israeli-Palestinian two-state solution
Talking Points Both countries have said a two-state solution is the way to end the Middle East conflict
-
Starving Gazans overrun US-backed food aid hub
speed read Israeli troops fired warning shots at the Palestinians
-
Israel's Western allies pull back amid Gaza escalation
speed read Britain and the EU are reconsidering allegiance with Israel as the Gaza siege continues
-
Israel-US 'rift': is Trump losing patience with Netanyahu?
Today's Big Question US president called for an end to Gaza war and negotiated directly with Hamas to return American hostage, amid rumours of strained relations
-
China looms large over India and Pakistan's latest violence
IN THE SPOTLIGHT Beijing may not have had troops on the ground, but as South Asia's two nuclear powers bared their teeth over Kashmir, China eyed an opportunity
-
Israel's plan to occupy Gaza
In Depth Operation Gideon's Chariots will see Israel sending thousands of troops into Gaza later this month to seize control of the strip