An undated handout photo released by the Hezbollah military media press office on September 21, 2024, shows Hezbollah top commander Ibrahim Aqil, who was killed on September 20 in an Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Ibrahim Aqil, the Hezbollah operations commander killed in an Israeli strike on Friday (September 20, 2024), had a $7 million bounty on his head for two 1983 Beirut truck bombings that killed more than 300 people at the American embassy and a U.S. Marines barracks.

Two security sources in Lebanon confirmed the veteran fighter was killed in an airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs during a meeting of the elite Radwan unit of the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group.

Aqil, who has also used the aliases Tahsin and Abdelqader, was the second member of Hezbollah’s top military body, the Jihad Council, to be killed in two months after an Israeli strike in the same area targeted Fuad Shukr in July.

Israel escalated its attacks on the group this week after months of border fighting triggered by the conflict in Gaza that began on Oct. 7 with a deadly raid and hostage-taking in Israel by Hezbollah’s Palestinian ally Hamas.

Like Shukr, Aqil is a veteran of Hezbollah, which was founded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in the early 1980s to battle Israeli forces that had invaded and occupied Lebanon.

Born in a village in Lebanon’s Beqaa valley sometime around 1960, Aqil had joined the other big Lebanese Shia political movement, Amal, before switching to Hezbollah as a founding member, according to a security source.

The United States accuses him of a role in the Beirut truck bombings at the American embassy in April 1983, which killed 63 people, and a U.S. Marine barracks six months later that killed 241 people.

It further accused him of directing the abduction of American and German hostages in Lebanon and listed him as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in 2019, putting the $7 million bounty on his head.

Referring to the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks and other attacks on Western interests in Lebanon in the 1980s, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a 2022 interview with an Arabic broadcaster that they were carried out by small groups not linked to Hezbollah.

Aqil’s cohort of founding Hezbollah operatives helped turn the group from a shadowy militia into Lebanon’s most powerful military and political organisation, pushing Israel from its occupation of the south in 2000 and fighting it again in 2006.

When Shukr was killed in July, it was seen as the heaviest blow to its command structure since the 2008 assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, remembered by Hezbollah as a legendary commander but by Israel and the United States as a terrorist.

Aqil, whose bounty was set by the United States at an even higher value than that of Shukr’s, may prove a similar blow.

Deadly Israeli attacks that blew up Hezbollah radios and pagers crossed all red lines, the leader of the heavily armed Lebanese movement said on Thursday (September 19, 2024), in a speech broadcast as sonic booms from Israeli warplanes shook buildings in Beirut.

Lebanon and Hezbollah have blamed Israel for attacks on Hezbollah’s communications equipment that killed 37 people and wounded around 3,000, overwhelming Lebanese hospitals and wreaking bloody havoc on Hezbollah. Israel has not directly commented on the attacks, which security sources say were probably carried out by its Mossad spy agency.

“There is no doubt that we have been subjected to a major security and military blow that is unprecedented in the history of the resistance and unprecedented in the history of Lebanon,” Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in his TV address, filmed at an undisclosed location.

Also Read | Israel military says hits seven Hezbollah sites in overnight air strikes in southern Lebanon

“This type of killing, targeting and crime may be unprecedented in the world,” he said, appearing in front of a featureless red background in his customary black turban.

The attacks “crossed all red lines”, he said. “The enemy went beyond all controls, laws and morals,” he said adding the attacks “could be considered war crimes or a declaration or war, they could be called anything and they deserve to be called anything. Of course that was the intention of the enemy.”

As the broadcast was aired, deafening sonic booms from Israeli warplanes shook Beirut, a sound that has become common in recent months but has taken on a greater significance as the threat of all-out war has steadily ramped up. Israel said its warplanes struck southern Lebanon overnight. Hezbollah reported that airstrikes resumed in the border area in the afternoon.

The attacks on Hezbollah communications equipment sowed fear across Lebanon, with people abandoning electronic devices for fear of carrying bombs in their pockets.

“Who can even secure their phone now? When I heard about what happened yesterday, I left my phone on my motorcycle and walked away,” said Mustafa Sibal on a street in Beirut.

The Lebanese army said on Thursday (September 19, 2024) it was blowing up pagers and suspicious telecom devices in controlled blasts in different areas. It called on citizens to report any suspicious devices.

Lebanese authorities banned walkie-talkies and pagers from being taken on flights from Beirut airport until further notice, the National News Agency reported. Such devices were also banned from being shipped by air.

Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel on the day after the October 7 cross-border attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas which triggered the Gaza war, and since then constant exchanges of fire have occurred. Although neither side has allowed this to escalate into a full-scale war, it has led to the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from the border area on both sides.

“The Hezbollah terrorist organization has turned southern Lebanon into a combat zone. For decades, Hezbollah has weaponized civilian homes, dug tunnels beneath them, and used civilians as human shields,” Israel’s military said.

“The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) is operating to bring security to northern Israel in order to enable the return of residents to their homes, as well as to achieve all of the war goals.”

Israel said its warplanes struck villages in southern Lebanon overnight, and a security source and Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV reported airstrikes near the border began again on Thursday just after midday.

Hand-held radios used by Hezbollah detonated on Wednesday across Lebanon’s south, killing 25 people and wounding hundreds.

Also Read | Enabling residents to return to north Israel is now a Gaza war goal, says Netanyahu

The previous day, hundreds of pagers — used by Hezbollah to evade mobile phone surveillance — exploded at once, killing 12 people including at least two children, and injuring more than 2,300.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati called on the United Nations Security Council to take a firm stand to stop what he called Israel’s “aggression” and “technological war” against his country.

Israel says its conflict with Hezbollah, like its war in Gaza against Hamas, is part of a wider regional confrontation with Iran, which sponsors both groups as well as armed movements in Syria, Yemen and Iraq.

Assassination plot

Also on Thursday (September 19, 2024), Israeli security forces said that an Israeli businessman had been arrested last month after attending at least two meetings in Iran where he discussed assassinating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Defence Minister or the head of the Shin Bet spy agency.

Last week, Shin Bet uncovered what it said was a plot by Hezbollah to assassinate former Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon.

Israel has been accused of assassinations including a blast in Tehran that killed the leader of Hamas and another in a Beirut suburb that killed a senior Hezbollah commander within hours of each other in July.

Despite the events of the past few days, a spokesperson for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon said the situation along the frontier had “not changed much in terms of exchanges of fire between the parties”.

“There was an intensification last week. This week it is more or less the same. There are still exchanges of fire. It is still worrying, still concerning, and the rhetoric is high,” the spokesperson, Andrea Tenenti, said.

The United Nations Security Council will meet on Friday over the pager blasts in Lebanon targeting militant group Hezbollah, said Slovenia’s U.N. Ambassador Samuel Zbogar, president of the 15-member council for September.

The meeting was requested by Algeria on behalf of Arab states, he said.

Earlier today, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the pager blasts targeting Hezbollah indicate “a serious risk of a dramatic escalation in Lebanon and everything must be done to avoid that escalation.”

“Obviously the logic of making all these devices explode is to do it as a pre-emptive strike before a major military operation,” he told reporters ahead of the annual gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly.

He also said that it was very important not to weaponize civilian objects. Guterres “urges all concerned actors to exercise maximum restraint to avert any further escalation,” his spokesman Stephane Dujarric later said in a statement.

– Reuters

Taiwanese company Gold Apollo said Wednesday that it authorised its brand on the pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria but that another company based in Budapest manufactured them.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

Taiwanese company Gold Apollo said on Wednesday (September 18, 2024) that it authorised its brand on the pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria but that another company based in Budapest manufactured them.

“Hundreds of handheld pagers exploded almost simultaneously Tuesday (September 17, 2024) across Lebanon and in parts of Syria, killing at least 12 people,” Government and Hezbollah officials said. Officials pointed the finger at Israel in what appeared to be a sophisticated remote attack. The Israeli military declined to comment.

Hezbollah began striking Israel almost immediately after Hamas’ October 7 attack that sparked the Israel-Hamas war. Since then, Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged fire daily, coming close to a full-blown war on several occasions and forcing tens of thousands on both sides of the border to evacuate their homes.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since Hamas’ October 7 attack. The Ministry does not differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count but says a little over half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants without providing evidence.

Gold Apollo claim

Taiwanese company Gold Apollo said Wednesday (September 17, 2024) that it authorised its brand on the pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria but that another company based in Budapest manufactured them.

Pagers used by hundreds of members of the militant group Hezbollah exploded near-simultaneously Tuesday (September 17, 2024) in Lebanon and Syria, killing at least nine people, including an 8-year-old girl, and wounding more than 2,000. Hezbollah and the Lebanese government blamed Israel for what appeared to be a sophisticated remote attack.

The AR-924 pagers used by the militants were manufactured by BAC Consulting KFT, based in Hungary’s capital, according to a statement released Wednesday (September 18, 2024) by Gold Apollo.

“According to the cooperation agreement, we authorise BAC to use our brand trademark for product sales in designated regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are solely the responsibility of BAC,” the statement read.

Gold Apollo chair Hsu Ching-kuang told journalists Wednesday (September 18, 2024) that his company has had a licensing agreement with BAC for the past three years, but did not provide evidence of the contract.

The AR-924 pager, advertised as being “rugged,” contains a rechargeable lithium battery, according to specifications once advertised on Gold Apollo’s website before it was apparently taken down Tuesday (September 17, 2024) after the sabotage attack. It could receive text messages of up to 100 characters and claimed to have up to 85 days of battery life. That’s something that would be crucial in Lebanon, where electricity outages have been common as the tiny nation on the Mediterranean Sea has faced years of economic collapse. Pagers also run on a different wireless network than mobile phones, making them more resilient in emergencies — one of the reasons why many hospitals worldwide still rely on them.

Pager attack death toll

Lebanon’s Health Minister says the death toll from the exploding pager attack on Hezbollah has increased to 12 people, including two children and an unspecified number of healthcare workers.

Health Minister Firas Abiad said that two-thirds of the wounded needed hospitalization, adding that the scale of the incident was far greater than the thousands wounded in the massive Beirut Port explosion in 2020.

“Most of the wounded were in Beirut and its southern suburbs,” he said.

Israel’s military claim

Israel’s military said they had intercepted two suspicious drones that approached Israel from Lebanon and Iraq on Wednesday (September 18, 2024) morning, the day after pagers used by the militant group Hezbollah exploded in Lebanon and Syria, killing at least nine people, including an 8-year-old girl, and wounding nearly 3,000. Hezbollah and the Lebanese government blamed Israel for what appeared to be a sophisticated remote attack.

On Wednesday (September 18, 2024), the Israeli military said they intercepted a drone launched from Lebanon over the Mediterranean Sea near the coast of northern Israel. Another drone launched from Iraq was intercepted by Israeli air force fighter jets. There were no injuries or damage reported.

Israel also began moving more troops to the northern border with Lebanon in preparation for a possible retaliation.

“As a precautionary measure, the Israeli military moved its 98th division to the northern border,” an official said. The division, which includes infantry, artillery, and commando units, has until recently been fighting in Gaza. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Hezbollah began firing rockets over the border into Israel on October 8, the day after a deadly Hamas-led attack in southern Israel triggered a massive Israeli counteroffensive and the ongoing war in Gaza. Since then, Hezbollah and Israeli forces have exchanged strikes near-daily, killing hundreds in Lebanon and dozens in Israel and displacing tens of thousands on each side of the border.

An ambulance arrives to American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) as more than 1,000 people, including Hezbollah fighters and medics, were wounded when the pagers they use to communicate exploded across Lebanon, according to a security source, in Beirut, Lebanon September 17, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Scenes of people bleeding and being rushed into hospitals flashed on television screens and social media platforms on Tuesday (September 17, 2024) evening in Lebanon. The attack, targeted at armed group Hezbollah, killed at least nine and injured several thousands, including Iran’s envoy to Beirut. The Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary condemned the attack as an “Israeli aggression”.

CCTV footage of blasts in multiple parts of the Middle Eastern country surprised the Iran-backed Hezbollah as two of its fighters and an 8-year-old girl were killed. The militant group vowed to retaliate against Israel for the blasts. The simultaneous explosions occurred largely in the southern part of Lebanon—a Hezbollah stronghold. Israel’s military has declined to comment.

Lebanon explosion LIVE updates – September 18, 2024

But the biggest surprise of this attack lies in the weapon used by the perpetrator. The devices behind the serial blasts were unsophisticated, low-tech gadgets: pagers.

What are pagers and how do they work?

Pagers, often called beepers, are communication devices that emerged in the mid-20th century. Their presence was eclipsed by the cellular phones that grew in popularity in the 1990s and 2000s. And subsequently, the dawn of the smartphone pushed the pagers into the shadows. But the humble, palm-sized device had its own strengths that played out well in specific circumstances.

Pagers operate using radio signals, which are transmitted by towers and received by the device. They function as either one-way or two-way systems. One-way pagers receive messages from a central transmitter but cannot send replies. That means a user can receive numeric or alphanumeric messages, and the device alerts them through a beep or vibration.

In a two-way system, the pagers are capable of handling communication in both directions. Users can receive and respond to messages, which makes them slightly more advanced, but these are still limited in functionality compared to modern smartphones.

Pagers rely on a network of radio towers that broadcast signals over a wide area. In many cases, they are more reliable than mobile phones in certain conditions because their communication system operates over simple, robust radio waves, often penetrating areas where cell coverage might be weak.

Despite their technological obsolescence in mainstream use, pagers are still valued in healthcare, emergency services, and remote locations where cellular networks are unreliable. Their simplicity ensures they are more energy-efficient and less prone to network outages.

How are pagers useful in covert operations?

Pagers are relatively unsophisticated compared to smartphones or other modern gadgets, which make them less susceptible to high-tech surveillance techniques. They don’t have GPS or internet connectivity, reducing the risk of location tracking and hacking. Intelligence agencies rely heavily on digital footprints, but pagers are harder to monitor remotely.

Secondly, pagers use radio frequencies, which makes it harder for interception compared to cellular or internet-based communication devices. This feature makes them ideal for sending short, encrypted, or coded messages in sensitive situations. And with one-way pagers, the risk of being detected is lower since the device does not transmit a response, making it difficult for intelligence agencies or adversaries to trace the origin or location of the message.

Thirdly, their simplicity plays a key role in how they can be manipulated, which could be a highly likely reason as to why it was used in the Hezbollah attack. Pagers can be modified to include circuits that trigger a signal when a specific message is received. These modifications are used in covert operations to activate explosives or send alerts without raising immediate suspicion.

Where else were low-tech, remote detonators used prior to the Hezbollah attack?

While it is unclear whether pagers were used to trigger blasts prior to the Hezbollah attack, there are several instances of remote detonators being used in conflict situations.

Armed groups use radio-controlled Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) to detonate explosives from a distance. Attackers use such systems to bomb high-profile targets, including police stations and government building.

These remote systems can even be deployed in a car or at the level of a doorbell to trigger explosions. And such devices are difficult to trace because they emit weak signals that could be mistaken for background noise or ignored by conventional detection methods. Simple everyday consumer electronics and communication gadgets can also be used to detonate IEDs remotely.

Why the pager attack will be a new tool in the armed conflict’s playbook?

Their small size and outdated appearance make pagers an ideal device to send short, encrypted texts that can’t be picked up by the intelligence community. But turning that unsophisticated device into a weapon to attack an adversary is nothing short of a page from a spy novel.

While Israel has declined to comment on the blasts, it is overwhelmingly clear who could have pulled off such a massive operation.

A Reuters report revealed that the pagers in the explosion bore Gold Apollo’s branding. While the Taiwan-based company has denied making the pagers used in the blasts in Lebanon, the company’s founder, Hsu Ching-Kuang, clarified that the devices were manufactured by a European firm licensed to use their brand.

Gold Apollo insists it was not responsible for the product and expressed embarrassment over the incident. Hezbollah, a militant group, reportedly ordered thousands of pagers, which they believed could help evade Israeli tracking systems.

Experts are hypothesising myriad ways by which this attack could have been planned and executed. But there is nothing conclusive yet. It is unclear whether the devices were bugged at the manufacturing level or at the supply chain level.

Nevertheless, the pager attack comes amid growing tensions between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah. The duo have been exchanging fire across the Israel-Lebanon border since the start of the Gaza war in October. And this operation could very well start a new phase in the prolonged regional conflict.