411

Israel carried out its operation against Hezbollah on Tuesday by hiding explosive material within a new batch of Taiwanese-made pagers imported into Lebanon, according to American and other officials briefed on the operation.

The pagers, which Hezbollah had ordered from Gold Apollo in Taiwan, had been tampered with before they reached Lebanon, according to some of the officials. Most were the company’s AP924 model, though three other Gold Apollo models were also included in the shipment.

The explosive material, as little as one to two ounces, was implanted next to the battery in each pager, two of the officials said. A switch was also embedded that could be triggered remotely to detonate the explosives.

MBFC
Archive

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] Sauvandu60@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 hours ago
[-] assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

I agree, but they probably could've worded it better. The pagers were meant for Hezbollah but that doesn't mean they exclusively went to Hezbollah.

[-] nonailsleft@lemm.ee 0 points 1 hour ago

More like everyone's suddenly ~~gangsta~~ a 'health worker' when their pager explodes

[-] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 8 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

two kids died in these explosions with much many more wounded.

well guess what we call groups that kill civilians with bombs?

[-] mlg@lemmy.world 11 points 18 hours ago

Reminds me of the time Mossad sent letter bombs against Palestinians living abroad.

https://youtu.be/gS5cDF0IC_Y

[-] Fedizen@lemmy.world 33 points 1 day ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

Imagine if everyone's phone exploded to execute like 10 guys.

Edit: The take aways here are

  1. Israel is a terrorist nation, that views civilian casualties as bonus points

  2. any country who imports their electronics instead of making their own is susceptible to this kind of tampering.

  3. The press is covering a terror attack like its some kind of new video game

[-] TheObviousSolution@lemm.ee 76 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

You could tell Israel did it by the wanton disregard of civilian casualties and the lack of a global governmental backlash against the act.

What I'm surprised is that were able to get them to believe the propaganda that pagers would be a much more secure communication medium.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago

The articles keep repeating "Hezbollah", but the target of the attack appears to have been the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon.

Much like the US bombing of an Iraqi airfield to kill the Iranian diplomatic delegation to Baghdad, this appears to be an entirely illegal and recklessly deployed assassination plot aimed at one guy. The thousands of injuries and the eight dead (at least two being children under the age of 11) are just collateral damage the IDF has once again blanket-tagged as "Evil Muslim Militants".

[-] TheObviousSolution@lemm.ee 8 points 9 hours ago

That article doesn't really indicate that one person was the target, nor does making 3000 pagers or whatever they were into bombs. I find it more likely that the Iranian delegation representative was just meeting with Hezbollah at the time or received one of their pagers to stay in communication. Nothing in the articles you link suggests this was done just to target them, just that they were affected.

load more comments (5 replies)
[-] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 174 points 1 day ago

So...

They're just casually admitting to another war crime?

Against someone I don't even think they're officially at war against?

[-] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 110 points 1 day ago

When there are zero consequences for war crimes, the "rules based" law and order we virtue signal is completely meaningless.

load more comments (19 replies)
[-] Moah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 31 points 1 day ago

Who is a terrorist state exactly?

[-] Blackmist@feddit.uk 43 points 1 day ago

Both?

I mean I'm no fan of Israel, but Hezbollah ain't exactly the Red Cross.

[-] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago

with Israel clearly having the greater outreach, destructive power and perhaps even less self regulation than Hezbollah as it seems.

[-] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 5 points 16 hours ago

It also isn't a state.

load more comments (6 replies)
[-] cosmicrookie@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago

Both but one is supported by the USA so they get unlimited free passes

[-] Ion@lemmy.myserv.one 1 points 18 hours ago

Both USA and Israel

[-] SeaJ@lemm.ee 94 points 1 day ago

State sponsored terrorism.

[-] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 4 points 16 hours ago

Not even "sponsored", just state terrorism.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] El_guapazo@lemmy.world 70 points 1 day ago

How do we know these were actual terrorists and not just random people that bought a pager?

They've classified infants as Hamas terrorists before so I'm a bit skeptical.

[-] Keeponstalin@lemmy.world 4 points 18 hours ago

It's worth noting that Hezbollah members aren't just militant fighters. There are also social services and Parliamentary members

Hezbollah organizes and maintains an extensive social development program and runs hospitals, news services, educational facilities, and encouragement of Nikah mut'ah. One of its established institutions, Jihad Al Binna's Reconstruction Campaign, is responsible for numerous economic and infrastructure development projects in Lebanon. Hezbollah controls the Martyr's Institute (Al-Shahid Social Association)

Hezbollah holds 14 of the 128 seats in the Parliament of Lebanon and is a member of the Resistance and Development Bloc. According to Daniel L. Byman, it is "the most powerful single political movement in Lebanon." Hezbollah, along with the Amal Movement, represents most of Lebanese Shi'a. Unlike Amal, Hezbollah has not disarmed. Hezbollah participates in the Parliament of Lebanon.

[-] Agent641@lemmy.world 51 points 1 day ago

The splodey ones all came from the same batches that were bought by Hezbolla-linked companies and distributed by them to hezbolla members. They didnt just 'upgrade' every pager made by gold apollo. Only batches destined for Hez.

Of course, theres undoubtedly a lot of people who ended up with one of the booby trapped batch, who are just regular doctors, nurses, workers, etc, and theres no certainty that the person who was issued the pager was holding it at the time. Could have been their kid, or wife, or whatever, so the attack was still not very discriminate.

[-] Deceptichum@quokk.au 43 points 1 day ago

They literally killed a child in this attack.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 80 points 1 day ago

This makes more sense than them being able to remotely overload a battery to make it explode.

load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2024
411 points (98.6% liked)

World News

38553 readers
2744 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS