Pager attack on Hezbollah injures thousands

Hello. The simultaneous explosion of pagers used by Hezbollah members injured thousands across Lebanon today, and killed at least 9. My colleagues tell us how such an extensive attack could have taken place. In Poland, Sarah Rainsford reports on the aftermath of Storm Bruno, which is making its way towards Italy. We're also reporting on

QUESTIONS ANSWERED

What we know about Hezbollah pager explosions

Both Hezbollah and Lebanese officials have blamed Israel for the pager attacks. Credit: Reuters

Nine people, including a child, have been killed and thousands were injured after handheld pagers used by members of the armed group Hezbollah to communicate exploded across Lebanon, the country’s health minister says. The group blamed Israel for what it called “this criminal aggression” and vowed “just retribution”. The Israeli military declined to comment.

Why did Hezbollah members use pagers?

Since the start of the Gaza conflict last year, Hezbollah had warned its members not to use mobile phones for fear they could be tampered with by Israeli intelligence agents. Instead, Hezbollah were using pagers to communicate, with a new batch delivered recently. Somebody - and Hezbollah are in no doubt that Israel was behind this - was able to secretly insert themselves into the supply chain for those pagers.

How could they have detonated at the same time?

A former British Army munitions expert, who asked not to be named, told the BBC the devices would have likely been packed with between 10 to 20 grams each of military-grade high explosive, hidden inside a fake electronic component. This, said the expert, would have been armed by a signal, something called an alphanumeric text message. Once armed, the next person to use the device would have triggered the explosive. Less than 1% of the exploding pagers have so far proved fatal.

How exceptional is this?

Supply chain attacks are a growing concern in the cyber security world with many high-profile hacks recently caused by hackers gaining access to products whilst they are in development. But these attacks are normally contained to software. Hardware supply chain attacks are far rarer as they involve getting ahold of the devices.

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