Small amounts of explosive were implanted in beepers that Hezbollah had ordered from a Taiwanese company, according to American and other officials briefed on the operation.

Israel carried out its operation against Hezbollah on Tuesday by hiding explosive material within a new batch of Taiwanese-made pagers imported into Lebanon, according to American and other officials briefed on the operation.

The pagers, which Hezbollah had ordered from Gold Apollo in Taiwan, had been tampered with before they reached Lebanon, according to some of the officials. Most were the company’s AP924 model, though three other Gold Apollo models were also included in the shipment.

The explosive material, as little as one to two ounces, was implanted next to the battery in each pager, two of the officials said. A switch was also embedded that could be triggered remotely to detonate the explosives.

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    • @iAvicennaEnglish
      2•2 months ago

      with Israel clearly having the greater outreach, destructive power and perhaps even less self regulation than Hezbollah as it seems.

    • xorEnglish
      -13•2 months ago

      And, frankly, this is one of the least morally concerning things Israel has (presumably) done. The pagers were targeted specifically because they were used almost exclusively by Hezbollah.

      • @[email protected]English
        18•2 months ago

        Dude they injured thousands of people and killed children and health care workers. This is 100% terrorism. I guess it’s a better than the active genocide they’re doing though, so it’s a low bar.

      • @[email protected]English
        4•2 months ago

        They were not exclusively used by Hezbollah.

        Also, you’re equating a government with it’s militant wing.

        Is it proper to call an Israeli Doctor a member of IDF? That is what you are doing.

        Hospital administrators (A government position for non insane countries) are Hezbollah.

        • xorEnglish
          3•2 months ago

          Yeah that’s a fair point wrt non-militant roles, my assumption was that they were primarily used in the military since their purpose was to avoid the issues with mobile networks being used to track them.

          But we don’t know exactly how the devices were distributed, so you’re right that there were potentially a large number of non-military Hezbollah staff.

          • @[email protected]English
            -2•2 months ago

            They’ve been doing the same for Hamas. Hospital administrator? Hamas. And so Israel bombs out their apartment killing them and their entire family. You know, back when there were apartments.

            Same for police.

            That one is what gives away Israels genocidal intent. Getting rid of police gets rid of the first line of defense against civil disorder, and the people most likely to do stuff like distribute food and supplies.

            Police very rarely end up fighting as militantsin occupied countries, too. Unless you fire them en masse, which occupying countries shouldn’t do, if they’re smart.

            Edit: We do know multiple EMT teams and doctors were hit by the beepers.

      • @iAvicennaEnglish
        0•2 months ago

        probably more civilians than the targeted number of Hezbollah militant members died, orders of magnitude more wounded, crippled etc. success?