The Iran-backed militant group said handheld communication devices belonging to its members had blown up across the country.
The militant group Hezbollah said Tuesday that pagers belonging to its members had blown up across Lebanon, killing at least eight and injuring more than 2,700, according to the country’s Health Ministry.
Iran-backed Hezbollah pinned the blame for the widespread and seemingly simultaneous blasts on Israel, without providing evidence for its claim. Israel did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the accusations and the pager explosions.
More than 200 people were in critical condition after the blasts, Public Health Minister Dr. Firas Abiad told reporters.
Amid what was developing into a nationwide health emergency, Lebanese officials ordered the public to avoid using handheld communication devices.
Mojtaba Amani, Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, was among those injured, according to the country’s embassy. In an post on X, it described his injuries as “superficial,” and added that Amani was in a good condition.
This was a clever supply chain attack. I say clever because I don’t think anything like this and at this scale has happened before, but due to it being lethal it’s crazy scary. I’m not condoning it or praising it. As a cybersecurity professional we usually see people infiltrate the supply chain of code to inject their own, not actually putting explosives into communication devices and then using the network to remotely detonate.
Might have just overloaded the battery somehow too.
After seeing some of the photos, I don’t think it was just a battery explosion. I believe someone (im sure we could guess who) tampered with a massive shipment.
If there is a technique for doing that with a standard lithium-ion battery, we can say goodbye to bringing personal electronic devices on flights from now on. Though given that it’d be only a matter of time until ransomware gangs and online swatters get this, would we want to have anything with a battery in a pocket?
I don’t think a pager battery alone would be likely to cause a deadly explosion.