Israel's innovative use of pagers in targeted attack on Hezbollah
During attacks conducted in Lebanon on Hezbollah terrorists, Israel used modified pagers. These are devices from another era, but their features make them useful in specific niches. What is a pager and what is it used for?
On September 17, Israel conducted an attack on members of the Hezbollah organization. At a scheduled time, thousands of terrorists and people associated with Hezbollah, including the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, received a message on their pagers that triggered the explosive device.
Although the explosive charge was tiny, at least a few people were killed and hundreds were injured. What is a pager – the device used by Israel in the attack?
What is a pager and how does it work?
A pager is the predecessor of the cellular phone. The first devices of this type appeared as early as the 1950s. They informed the user that someone had left a message for them. The user would then call the central office, where they could access the waiting information.
Modern pagers – also known as beepers – operate on a similar principle. In their most common form, they allow information to be sent to the user via radio, such as a short text message or a phone number for the user to contact.
In various versions, pagers are used in places where cell phone use is prohibited and the WiFi network is considered too unreliable, such as hospitals. Pagers are also popular in the food service industry as a calling system for service staff.
Why do terrorists use pagers?
Although there are different types of pagers, these devices are receivers only in their basic version. They do not have a built-in transmitter, which allows for confidential, directed, and one-way communication to a specific user.
In practice, this ensures high privacy – you can communicate with the user, but their location remains unknown. As a result, the pager serves as an attractive communication channel for individuals who want to send a message to a specific recipient (and not – as, for example, via radio, to the general public with receivers), regardless of their location.
Pagers became popular among Hezbollah members after 2022 when they were banned from communicating via cell phones, which could be eavesdropped on by Israeli intelligence.
Explosive pagers
Israel took advantage of the use of pagers by terrorists. To make the attack possible, Israeli agents established the company BAC Consulting in Hungary, which manufactured or brokered the sale of pagers made using technology from Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo.
In addition to devices sold to regular customers for disguise, the batch of pagers intended for Hezbollah had batteries with explosive charges. The likely course of the attack (or part of it) involved sending a message to the devices that caused them to vibrate. Turning off the vibration required pressing a button, which, in this situation, triggered the battery explosion.
