Live by Terror, Die by Pager Explosion—Hezbollah’s Worst Day(s) Ever!
I recently saw this spy flick where a free and democratic country was at war with a terrorist organization in a neighboring country. The terrorists stopped using cell phones out of fear that the intelligence agency of the democratic country would somehow infiltrate them. They switched to pagers—you know, like drug dealers used to use—and many everyday people in the 80s.
Wait a minute … it was on TV last night, but it was no movie!
Yesterday, most of Israel was stunned as news flooded the airways that pagers belonging to the Lebanon-based terrorist organization Hezbollah all exploded between 3:30 PM and 4:30 PM. A video was being shared around the word of a Hezbollah terrorist in a grocery store. Suddenly, there is a blast, a bunch of cash falls to the ground, along with the terrorist, who is writhing in pain. People jump out of the way. Other videos were circulating of terrorists in various places when, suddenly, there was a blast in the belt line.
Let me remind everyone that the pagers, all of them, belonged to members of the murderous terror group Hezbollah and their associates. While Hezbollah says that civilians were targeted, the truth is that every day, the Iran-backed terror group sends dozens of rockets into Israel, seeking to kill innocent civilians. Roughly 80,000 Israelis had to flee their homes in northern Israel almost a year ago. Hezbollah’s belligerent behavior continues to backfire.
Roughly a dozen Hezbollah terrorists were killed, according to the group, and thousands were injured in the simultaneous cyber-attack yesterday. Two hundred are in critical condition. There are reports that terrorists were also killed in Syria through similar explosions. One of those killed was the son of a Lebanese lawmaker affiliated with Hezbollah. While it was reported yesterday that Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon was slightly injured, Iranian American New York Times journalist Farnaz Fassihi reports that he was blinded in one eye, and the other eye was severely injured.
In a series of tweets, she reports, “The pagers, including the one used by the ambassador, beeped for about 10 seconds before exploding, prompting some victims to hold the devices close to their eyes and faces to check for a message. Hence the large number of severe eye injuries.” Gabriel Noronja, a former US State Department advisor on Iran, finds it ironic that “Hundreds of Iranian protesters have been blinded by regime security forces who shot at their eyes in 2022. Mojtaba Amani, Iran’s Ambassador to Lebanon, can now experience how the regime’s victims suffer firsthand.”
UPDATE: You might have noticed that the title says “Day(s)” not “Day.” As I am writing, there are reports out of Lebanon of another wave of explosions. One of the blasts took place at the funeral for those who were killed in yesterday’s pager malfunction. This time, it was the terror group's handheld radios that exploded. Hezbollah purchased them around the same time as the pagers were purchased. You’d think they would have suspected it. “A number of walkie-talkies exploded in Beirut’s southern suburbs,” according to a source associated with the terrorist organization.
Elana and I watched Hebrew news last night in amazement. The whole country was astounded, and it was all people were talking about. They showed news outlets worldwide reporting on the unprecedented cyber intelligence coup. This is a massive win for Mossad (assuming Israel was behind it) and another huge embarrassment for Hezbollah and Iran—after Israel neutralized more than 300 missiles and drones in April and then assassinated the leader of Hamas on Iranian soil.
The Jerusalem Post reported that Hezbollah could not keep up with the casualty count as it was rising so fast. “One … official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the detonation of the pagers was the “biggest security breach” the group had been subjected to in nearly a year of war with Israel.”
Yesterday, the working theory was that Israel’s Mossad somehow caused the lithium batteries in the pagers to explode. However, experts said the amount of damage caused by the simultaneous detonations (between 3,000 and 4,000) was inconsistent with battery explosions. Now, the fingers are pointing to a company in Hungary that sold the pagers to Hezbollah.
CBS News is reporting that “a senior Lebanese security official and another source told the Reuters news agency that Israel's Mossad intelligence agency had planted a small amount of explosives inside 5,000 of the devices, which it said were ordered by Hezbollah months before the blasts.” Axios’s Barak Ravid is reporting that Israel was waiting until all-out war broke out with the terror group to use it as a “surprise opening blow…to cripple Hezbollah, but “Israel decided to blow up the pager devices carried by Hezbollah members in Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday out of concern its secret operation might have been discovered by the group, [according to] three U.S. officials.” Ravid writes that one US official said, “It was a ‘use it, or lose it’ moment.”
While it is likely that those impacted would like to respond against Israel, they’ve taken a major blow in their communications department. They have lost the use of pagers and their handheld radios, and they are afraid to use cell phones.
This is a war that Israel did not want or ask for. Hezbollah has had many opportunities to back down from their belligerent behavior.
Pray:
For the defeat of Islamic terrorism.
That Hezbollah would be defeated, and the 80,000 displaced Israelis could go home.
That Lebanon would take a stand against the terrorist entity eating up their nation like a cancer.
That God would continue to protect Israel from terrorism.
That our hostages would come home.
That there would be a worldwide prayer army on behalf of the tiny Jewish nation.
That the people of Iran would rise up against their tyrannical government.
