Beeper as a Weapon

[Justo Miranda]

In 2012, in episode 16 of the fifth season of Castle, a CIA agent murders the Russian spy (Grigory Volkov) with a modified Walkie.

Castle infiltrates the complex through the sewers and plants an explosive that would take down the place's power...but he's caught by Volkov's guards and marched into the room where Alexis is being kept. Volkov takes Castle's radio and tells Hunt he has ten seconds to come out, or he shoots Castle. Hunt tells him he's not going to kill Castle...because he's already dead. At that moment, the radio explodes.

Good and bad ideas circulate freely.

Hunt

Hunt [1] is the sixteenth episode of the fifth season of Castle. In the powerful conclusion of a two-episode story arc, when the FBI fails to get his daughter back, Castle takes matters into his own hands, reaching out to a shadowy fixer to help him recover Alexis. But Castle soon learns that...

castle.fandom.com

 

[Forest Green]

If the Admin does not mind, here is an update. It seems that the coverup stage has commenced.

I wonder why that Hungarian-Italian lady of BAC does not say where exactly she has ordered the production of the AP-924 and other pagers which were later shipped to Hezbollah unless the Hungarian investigators or her lawyers told her to do so.

So, here there are the revelations.

(1) The Bulgarian Connection.

A news outlet claims that a Bulgarian company from Sofia called Norta Global Ltd sent the pagers that exploded to Hezbollah.

The Hungarian company BAC Consulting owned by Israel only served as a front company and the deal itself was carried out through Bulgaria

View attachment 741454

Sources:

Bolgár cég adta tovább a Hezbollahnak a személyhívókat, a magyar céget csak papíron használták

Az ügyben érintett magyar cégnek semmilyen valós tevékenysége nem volt, a készülékek nem is voltak soha Magyarországon. A BAC Consulting értesüléseink szerint egy bolgár vállalkozással, a Norta Global Ltd-vel állt kapcsolatban, valójában az szállíthatta és értékesíthette a csipogókat a Hezbollahnak.

telex.hu

The pagers were sold to Hezbollah by a Bulgarian company, the Hungarian company was only used on paper

The Hungarian company implicated in the case had no real activity in the deal, and the devices were never in Hungary. According to our information, BAC Consulting was connected to a Bulgarian company, Norta Global Ltd, which is likely the one who supplied and sold the pagers to Hezbollah.

telex.hu

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/bulgaria-probe-company-links-pagers-that-exploded-lebanon-2024-09-19/

And according to the Daily Mail (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...r-hezbollah-pagers-built-scratch-lebanon.html):




(2) The Bulgarian / Austrian Connection - a minor mod to #(1)

The Hungarian Government states that the pagers were not made in Hungary, but in Bulgaria, according to a government spokesperson.

BAC Consulting never had any Manufacturing capacity in the first place, said the spokesperson, and the work was outsourced to Bulgaria, at the same time, Apollo Gold LTC states that "An Austrian Engineer" was involved in the business.

(3) The Czech Connection according to Pepe Escobar on sm (quotation follows):

OPERATION MOSSAD PAGER: THE BREAKDOWN

The pagers that blew up or blinded 3,200 people - including Iran's ambassador to Lebanon - were manufactured in the Czech Republic.

The shipment was purchased in early March by a Qatari - with delivery to Beirut.

The manufacturing company, operating under license from the Taiwanese parent company, Golden Apollo, is owned by a - surprise! - Jewish American.

The explosive device and the printed circuit board with the malicious code were installed still at the factory in the Czech Republic.

The batch was shipped by sea from Hamburg to Lebanon.
.
The pagers were equipped with tracking sensors. Mossad could detect where Hezbollah operatives as well as civilians were gathering and where were they going.

Forty seconds before detonation, the pagers sounded a high-pitched alarm - and self-destructed.

The pagers started to get very hot an hour before the explosion. A significant number of potential victims moved them away from themselves. But the 3,200 victims did not.

(4) The False-flag / Put-the-Blame on French Connection:



Source: https://www.straitstimes.com/world/...ding-pagers-in-lebanon-runs-to-taiwan-hungary

Exactly which BAC Consulting are we talking about here? There's no mention of Israeli ownership.

What we know about Hungarian-based firm linked to Lebanon pagers

BBC Verify has looked into a firm called BAC Consulting, which has been linked to the pagers' production.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[trose213]

Exactly which BAC Consulting are we talking about here? There's no mention of Israeli ownership.

The NYT said that they were Israeli.

 

[Forest Green]

The NYT said that they were Israeli.

Albeit with unofficial, anonymous sources.

 

[Scott Kenny]

The NYT said that they were Israeli.

If the NYT said it was raining, I'd have to call all the airports around NYC for a real weather brief.

Treat the NYT as if it was a person with dementia.

Lots of people talking about the technology and how clever an attack it was.

But was it?

3000 explosions randomly scattered around a country is not an attack pattern consistent with the laws of war. There was no capability to determine who else was in the blast radius or otherwise likely to be endangered and whether they were civilians.

Mossad has staged technologically clever attacks before, but they've almost always been specifically targeted at a target few people will object to. That isn't true here and people outside Israel aren't going to remember "two hezbollah fighters killed", they're going to remember "young girl killed".

Israel is losing the PR war, and it's doing it to itself.

US special ops official lays out 'strategic' reason for Israel to better protect civilians - Breaking Defense

Chris Maier, assistant secretary of defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict, said how the Israeli military operates "has concerned us at times."

breakingdefense.com

3000 explosions that would only harm the person holding the device, given to people known to be terrorists (ie, Hezbollah members).

The two children killed is extremely unfortunate. Maybe their parents shouldn't have been terrorists?

The theory that there was around there thousands of batteries rigged with explosive is absurd. Why would you expose the general public to such risks for an indefinite period of time? Visualize those pagers at airports, in flight with someone seated close to you etc...

If you know exactly how the boom works, you can ship all sorts of things via air.

Also, given that the pagers apparently needed to get into an overheat situation to sufficiently sensitize the explosive before detonation, I'd argue that this was taking some particularly creative methods with normally-stable materials that are only reactive when hot or even liquid (or needed to liquefy two separate chemicals that would then react to become an explosive).

See also binary chemicals that are separately not explosive at all, but when combined are explosive. And only when combined. You can ship binaries anywhere, and some types are sold over the counter in the US as reactive targets. (Lots of fun, I should add) The reactive target types typically require a pretty strong kinetic impact to go off, usually advertised on the outer container as X many grains of projectile at Y many feet per second impact velocity. Just dropping the 1lb container wouldn't work. For most of those reactive targets, even shooting one with a .22lr would not be enough energy. 5.56 at ~300m is about the minimum power needed, 100m is the safe distance. (Yes, I've used them before.)

That would be the SVR, the KGB hasn't existed since 1993 IIRC.

Thank you, I haven't kept up with the name changes. It's still the same people and same agency.

"We and our adversaries have suspended our conflicts and will seek peaceful solutions - for the sake of the children" said nobody ever.

Ireland.

So a full year before the Oct 2023 attack they had been distributing thousands of bombs throughout Lebanon disguised as civilian objects which is illegal under Article 37 of the Geneva convention which bans disguising a military personnel/weapon as a civilian so as to invite confidence or which an adversary might trust in good faith (by the way militia, where civilians have taken up weapons are exempted from the requirement to wear an identifying uniform in the Geneva convention, Special forces for example are allowed to disguise themselves as civilians for camouflage but are required to identify themselves to the adversary before the commencement of hostile action). Or if you want to argue they were mines then the rules on landmines ban their use in civilian areas in which ground combat is not presently taking place.

You really need to reread the Conventions.

Militia ARE REQUIRED TO HAVE an identifying symbol.

Taking hostages is specifically listed as a grave breach of the Conventions, ie a War Crime.

 

[yahya]

Some comments from HAMs on Hezbollah’s exploding radios:

View: https://youtu.be/22qnLyhNaF8

View: https://youtu.be/iEtJfxpELD4

View: https://youtu.be/_IwRVehCf04

 

[NMaude]

Thank you, I haven't kept up with the name changes.

To be more specific the KGB was split up into the SVR and FSB in 1991 (I was off by two years). They're the Russian analogues of the US CIA and FBI (Except that the FBI isn't in the habit of murdering political opponents who get offside with Putin).

It's still the same people and same agency.

Only at the top levels, it has been 33 years since the KGB was split up so the youngest veterans would have to be in their late 50s (The oldest no doubt have keeled over from old age).

Defense Updates has put out a video about the exploding pagers and walkie-talkies:

In the last two days of July, Israel got some crucial successes.The assassination of Hezbollah's most senior military commander Fuad Shukr, and one of Hamas’s top leaders Ismail Haniyeh had put the focus on Israel’s ability to take out people who are deemed as threats.

While those operations were incredible, Israel has now pulled off something that is being termed the ‘Covert Operation of the Century’ by many.

Thousands of pagers used by Lebanon-based Hezbollah members have exploded, injuring and killing a significant number of active personnel. Viewers may note that reports were indicating Israel had infiltrated Hezbollah's communication networks and that the organization had switched to pagers and couriers after cell phones were banned.

In this video, Defense Updates reports how Israel managed to land a severe blow on Hezbollah with exploding Pagers?

#defenseupdates #hezbollahpagerexplosions #israelvshezbollah

Chapters:
00:11 INTRODUCTION
01:49 HEZBOLLAH - A THREAT
03:30 POTENTIAL MODE OF OPERATION
05:32 NOT THE END GAME
07:16 ANALYSIS

According to this report each pager had ~20g (0.7Oz) of PETN and that it's similar lithium-salts making it difficult to detect. Unsurprisingly the pagers GPS functions were used to track the movements of the pager users for days before they were detonated which in of itself would reveal a lot of useful information.

 

[publiusr]

The more rugged design of those type pagers probably lends itself into being a de facto grenade than the walkie talkies...greater surface area means they split apart *real* fast--the pager more likely to fragmentate?

Here I might like to propose a way to keep this from happening again.

Very early on...an an attempt to look futuristic...Star Trek communicators were clear plastic such that you could see inside them at a glance.

Those were just bits and pieces in lucite I suppose--but clear appliances might help young folks get an appreciation for electronics once nothing is a black box anymore.

 

[Scott Kenny]

According to this report each pager had ~20g (0.7Oz) of PETN and that it's similar lithium-salts making it difficult to detect. Unsurprisingly the pagers GPS functions were used to track the movements of the pager users for days before they were detonated which in of itself would reveal a lot of useful information.

I honestly doubt that there was that much PETN in there, at least in the pagers.

Early reports had 1-3 grams as the size of the load, and the injury of the individual on the scooter was not as severe as I'd expect from 30+ grams of TNT. Not to mention the lack of volume inside the pager case or battery case for such a charge.

However, the walkie-talkie batteries are large enough to hold such a charge.

 

[yahya]

The ABC News has an interesting piece, which elaborates the two-day pager and walkie-talkie attacks on Lebanon. It confirmed that Israel had a hand in the manufacturing of pagers and that the op has been planned for at least 15 years. The planning involved numerous front companies and numerous people, some of whom were not aware of the real purpose and scope of their activities. The ABC News confirmed that Israel's hand in the manufacturing of the pagers was first reported by The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/18/world/middleeast/israel-exploding-pagers-hezbollah.html).

Interestingly, the ABC News claims that 1 to 2 oz. of explosives and a remote trigger switch to set off the blast were planted in the pagers. That's quite a lot considering the confined spaces inside any pager's enclosure. Considering that there are distressing images on sm showing a victim sitting in a car with a half of his head torn off, I wonder about the actual amount of explosives used and where exactly they were planted inside the pagers. Behind the LCD screen so that the blast stroked the face of the victims when they held the device in front of them?

The ABC News piece confirmed the number of victims of pagers or walkie-talkies explosions of at least 37 deaths and 2,931 wounded, according to Lebanese Health Minister Firass Al-Abyad.

Remarkably, in yesterday's speech Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah said that the group's top leadership used old pagers, and not the new ones used in the attack, which were reportedly shipped in the last six months. The group has reportedly begun a full investigation into the explosions. I presume that they have already analyzed the unexploded pagers in detail and their supply chain contacts, and perhaps interrogated some of the suspects. I only wish they published more details or at least some photos of the interior of the pagers or walkie-talkies and their battery packs.

Source:

Israel had hand in manufacturing pagers that exploded in Lebanon: Source

Israel had a hand in the actual manufacturing of the pagers that exploded on Hezbollah operatives this week, an attack that was in planning for at least 15 years.

abcnews.go.com

The bottom line

I presume that Unit 8200 knew perfectly about the pager transmitters and monitored the content of the short messages aired throughout many years. POCSAG is not encrypted and anyone with a cheap receiver dongle can pick up and analyze such transmissions. I noticed that the AR924 was equipped with the transmitter's signal strength meter, which suggests that the POCSAG transmitter was always on-the-air as this happens in the pager networks worldwide. Perhaps Unit 8200 quickly separated the unusual POCSAG transmitters in the ether and associated them with Hezbollah. Finding their exact location using DF is actually easy. It wouldn't be surprising if the idea of exploiting the pager network came actually from SIGINT.

 

[Nicknick]

@NMaude : I believe, they used pageres because those are not sending any signals out and can only receive information. Pagers were often used by drug dealers, because they work anonymously and don't connect with cell phone signal transmitter. Instead, the message is send by all senders at a time.

I would be suprised, if these pagers could have really worked the way you described it, because this would have made them obsolete.

 

[yahya]

According to this report each pager had ~20g (0.7Oz) of PETN and that it's similar lithium-salts making it difficult to detect. Unsurprisingly the pagers GPS functions were used to track the movements of the pager users for days before they were detonated which in of itself would reveal a lot of useful information.

I think that the media reports on the alleged GPS inside the exploding pagers are inaccurate. If the trackers were indeed within the pagers, they were rather the small chips that acted like the Apple AirTag or similar gadgets which can be purchased worldwide, and which rely on the nearby bluetooth and wifi to establish the location of the tracker by the party that deployed it. That tracking chip was most likely powered from the internal battery in the pager to extend its operational life.

 

[yahya]

An addition to the Bulgarian connection mentioned above:

Tech guru who helped Israel obtain pagers used to bomb Lebanon missing

A Norwegian tech guru who inadvertently helped Israel source the pagers used to bomb Hezbollah militants disappeared on the day of the blasts and hasn't been heard from since

www.dailymail.co.uk

Daily Mail: The businessman who sold pagers to Lebanon disappeared: EADaily

Earlier, the Taiwanese manufacturer of Gold Apollo pagers said that the batch of pagers detonated in Lebanon was produced by the Budapest firm BAC Consulting Kft. under license. The Hungarian government said that the company was an intermediary and the pagers had never been in the country...

eadaily.com

A Norwegian man who owns a company that was allegedly involved in the supply of pagers to Lebanon disappeared after their mass detonation

A Norwegian man who owns a company that was allegedly involved in the supply of pagers to Lebanon disappeared after their mass detonation.According to the Daily Mail, the owner of Norta Global Ltd, 39-year-old Norwegian Rinson Yossi left for a...

news-pravda.com

BBC summarized the questions that still need the answers:

Hezbollah device explosions: The unanswered questions

The sabotage of thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies has raised many who, what and whys.

www.bbc.com

 

[yahya]

There is a photo circulating on sm of an Icom IC-V82 allegedly destroyed in Lebanon. Considering the substantial damage to the set, could our experts asses whether the explosive was hidden inside the radio cabinet, somewhere in the center, or inside the battery pack that is to be attached to the back of the radio? What could be the necessary weight of the explosive if it was PETN or RDX to cause such a damage?



Parts description:


Edit: the unknown box was a cover of a mains power supply that was also destroyed in the explosion.




Another, less damaged IC-V82 radio either had an explosive planted in the center of the cabinet, or within the battery pack:

And how a real IC-V82 walkie-talkie looks like:

 

[publiusr]

The ABC News has an interesting piece...the op has been planned for at least 15 years

That would not surprise me.

I presume that they have already analyzed the unexploded pagers in detail and their supply chain contacts, and perhaps interrogated some of the suspects.

That won't be pleasant...

 

[yahya]

If:

...Bulgaria's state security agency DANS said on Friday it had "indisputably established" that no pagers used in the Lebanon attack were imported to, exported from, or made in Bulgaria

according to:

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/components-pagers-used-lebanon-blasts-are-not-taiwan-minister-says-2024-09-20/

then, where were they made...? By Unit 8200 and their associates in the tech industry?

The source said Unit 8200 was involved in the technical side of testing how they could insert explosive material within the manufacturing process.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/hezbollah-pager-attack-puts-spotlight-israels-cyber-warfare-unit-8200-2024-09-18/

The cover-up stage of the op will continue. The real culprits will have enough time to flee and blur the incriminating evidence.

 

[WatcherZero]

You really need to reread the Conventions.

Militia ARE REQUIRED TO HAVE an identifying symbol.

Taking hostages is specifically listed as a grave breach of the Conventions, ie a War Crime.

Yeah if only they had some sort of identifying symbol, like a bright yellow flag and yellow arm patches or something...
And you seem to be confused between Hamas and Hezbollah, though I am sure many in the middle east will be glad you recognise the incarceration of thousands of family members, wife's and children of living or dead fighters, held without charge or even suspicion for months or even years purely for punitive revenge as a war crime. Its not like Collective Punishment is also a war crime....oh wait it is.

 

[Archibald]

Remember in Breaking Bad, Face/off ? when Gustavo Fring has half his face blown away by Walter pipe bomb ? well, Lebanon hospitals saw hundreds of Gus Frings. It was like a zombie invasion. The horror, the horror.

Surgeon 'became robotic' to treat sheer volume of wounded Lebanese

Elias Jaradeh worked for almost 24 hours on the wounded, many of whom lost eyes or the use of their hands.

www.bbc.com

 

[Foo Fighter]

Considering the ability of pacemakers to 'connect' to send data and recieve mode change instructions would they be the next logical item of choice for 'voodoo-isation'?

 

[Archibald]

Oh crap, pacemakers... it is well known they are very vulnerable to things like microwave ovens (from memory) and wifi / smartphones / whatever.
I'm not sure however many terrorists have pacemakers: terrorists by definition are not faint hearted...

 

[Foo Fighter]

No, perhaps not but their financial backers might well have them. Possibly in sufficient number to make them worth targeting.

 

[publiusr]

Lebanon hospitals saw hundreds of Gus Frings. It was like a zombie invasion.

Surgeon 'became robotic' to treat sheer volume of wounded Lebanese

Elias Jaradeh worked for almost 24 hours on the wounded, many of whom lost eyes or the use of their hands.

www.bbc.com

It's one thing to be walking at night and say--get capped in the back of the head.
As the Mafia says, it's strictly business. Join Hamas or whatever, that's Big Boy risk.
Same as a recent Darwin Award winner who got in a tiger enclosure...

But I'd rather be in a cage with five starving tigers than be anywhere near a chimpanzee.

When they go for you--it is to erase your existence. Before they go for your junk--they also go for your hands (and feet) and take your eyes and face... everything that makes you an *individual* with your own identity and worth...to snuff out your heat...your light.

 

[WatcherZero]

Oh crap, pacemakers... it is well known they are very vulnerable to things like microwave ovens (from memory) and wifi / smartphones / whatever.
I'm not sure however many terrorists have pacemakers: terrorists by definition are not faint hearted...

Doesnt seem to be unprecedented in the Medical Literature, someone's pacemaker exploded after a battery malfunction.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0012369215429393

 

[Foo Fighter]

It is not 'common'. I have seen three or four but they are usually down to poor insertion and/or shoddy componants/knock off.

The move to 'smart' medical devices everywhere would also be liable to hacking/tracking the user. How many wealthy backers are now queueing up to to have theirs checked?

Find your enemy first, then kill him/her when it suits or it is convenient.

 

[Forest Green]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1836850319122202898

View: https://x.com/Archer83Able/status/1836850319122202898

 

[yahya]

More info is surfacing on the explosives and how they were inserted into the said equipment.

PETN is believed to have been integrated into the batteries of the devices and the explosives were therefore difficult to detect. Icom believes that the explosives were integrated into the external battery packs rather than into the walkie-talkies by the attackers. There were apparently the instances when the battery packs set off even when they were detached from the radios. And there are claims that Hezbollah has checked the pagers and allegedly went through the airports with them without any problems, but it’s unattested whether, where and when. Allegedly, a turned off pager exploded even unboxed, which would indicate a built-in separate RC circuit for the detonator. Note that the Hermes-alike UAVs were circling over Lebanon during the days of the pager and walkie-talkie attacks.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/batteries-walkie-talkies-that-exploded-lebanon-were-laced-with-petn-lebanese-2024-09-20/

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/hezbollah-handed-out-pagers-hours-before-blasts-even-after-checks-2024-09-20/

Also an update on the Hungarian-Italian lady. At least that seems to be a real person, not an alias as supposed earlier, and she seems to have been exploited by the genuine perpetrators of the attack. But since she is not available to be interviewed by the media, nothing can be ruled out so far.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/trail-mystery-woman-whose-company-licensed-exploding-pagers-2024-09-20/

And Icom of Japan seems to have been cleaned of any guilt by the Lebanese government:

https://www.icomjapan.com/news/4204/

 

[Nicknick]

Yeah if only they had some sort of identifying symbol, like a bright yellow flag and yellow arm patches or something...
And you seem to be confused between Hamas and Hezbollah, though I am sure many in the middle east will be glad you recognise the incarceration of thousands of family members, wife's and children of living or dead fighters, held without charge or even suspicion for months or even years purely for punitive revenge as a war crime. Its not like Collective Punishment is also a war crime....oh wait it is.

Sending missiles into villages is surly a war crime, but the pager attac was focused on terrorists and minimized the civil victoms as much as possible. There is no war without the dead of innocent children and droping bombs is surly not a better way for fighting terrorists.

It weired how the perception can be distorted, same is true for the definition of evil "barrel bombs" vs good Nato bombs, during the Syrien war.

 

[yahya]

A photo from sm of an AR-924 with a USB cable ruptured by explosion in Lebanon.



If anyone has a PDF manual for this pager, please post it here.

 

[yahya]

An interesting legal thread related to the attacks is unfolding.

“If it is Israel behind this, they’ve got some tough questions to answer, including to the U.S. government, because the U.S. government is providing great military support,” said Brian Finucane, a former State Department legal adviser under Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump. “It really should be in the U.S. government’s interest to ensure that its military partners are complying with the laws of war.”
Finucane said that, were he still advising the State Department, he would urge the U.S. to ask a series of questions: Did Israel take precautions to minimize harms to civilians? Did it anticipate blasts to be large enough to harm civilians? How and when were the devices altered to be detonated?
On the specific topic of exploding pagers and walkie-talkies, he highlighted a law of war that prohibits the “use of booby-traps or other devices in the form of harmless portable objects which are specifically designed and constructed to contain explosive material.” Both Israel and Lebanon have agreed to the prohibition, Article 7(2) of Amended Protocol II, which was added to international laws of war in 1996.
Finucane noted that the Department of Defense’s Law of War Manual, when referencing the 1996 law, uses the example of communications headsets, which Italian forces during World War II booby-trapped with explosives and electronic detonators after retreat or surrender in order to kill their enemies. Finucane wondered whether modification of pagers or walkie-talkies with explosive material would meet the law’s criteria.

Source:

Paging The Hague: Israel’s Exploding Electronics Might Be War Crimes

Experts on international law pointed to the indiscriminate nature of the blasts in Lebanon and the prohibition on booby traps.

theintercept.com

And the text of international law that was apparently breached:

https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/ccw-amended-protocol-ii-1996/article-7?activeTab=

FM 5-31 of 1965 can be downloaded from: https://www.bits.de/NRANEU/others/amd-us-archive/FM5-31(65).pdf

See also:

Did Israel’s attack on pagers and radios break international law?

The attack on pagers and radios, aimed at Hezbollah, needed to discern between civilians and fighters, be proportionate and be militarily necessary to be legal, say experts

www.middleeasteye.net

 

[Scott Kenny]

An interesting legal thread related to the attacks is unfolding.



Source:

Paging The Hague: Israel’s Exploding Electronics Might Be War Crimes

Experts on international law pointed to the indiscriminate nature of the blasts in Lebanon and the prohibition on booby traps.

theintercept.com

And the text of international law that was apparently breached:

https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/ccw-amended-protocol-ii-1996/article-7?activeTab=

FM 5-31 of 1965 can be downloaded from: https://www.bits.de/NRANEU/others/amd-us-archive/FM5-31(65).pdf

See also:

Did Israel’s attack on pagers and radios break international law?

The attack on pagers and radios, aimed at Hezbollah, needed to discern between civilians and fighters, be proportionate and be militarily necessary to be legal, say experts

www.middleeasteye.net

Considering that the only people who would have the exploding pagers or walkie-talkies would be terrorists or their families (who are also likely to be terrorists), it's a reach to claim this as a war crime.

2. It is prohibited to use booby-traps or other devices in the form of apparently harmless portable objects which are
specifically designed and constructed to contain explosive material.
3. Without prejudice to the provisions of Article 3, it is prohibited to use weapons to which this Article applies in any
city, town, village or other area containing a similar concentration of civilians in which combat between ground forces is
not taking place or does not appear to be imminent, unless either:
(a) they are placed on or in the close vicinity of a military objective; or
(b) measures are taken to protect civilians from their effects, for example, the posting of warning sentries, the issuing of warnings or the provision of fences.

Because the pagers and radios quite clearly meet the terms of 3(a), being placed on the very persons that are the military objective.

Part 1 does not apply.

 

[yahya]

Well, it's always decided by the ultimate winner of any conflict what was allowed and what was not. While I am not defending or blaming anyone, what about the provisions of pt 2 of https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/ccw-amended-protocol-ii-1996/article-7?activeTab= ?

2. It is prohibited to use booby-traps or other devices in the form of apparently harmless portable objects which are specifically designed and constructed to contain explosive material.

Would this be consistent with a dead letter law? Are pagers and walkie-talkies the communication devices or weapons by their primary function? Are all pagers used worldwide weapon systems?

 

[Nicknick]

I don't see it as a booby trap. A trap is something everybody could step in, but these pageres were personalized and activated by a message. Something completly different.

Maybe we can find a compromize and all agree, that Israel should invade Lebanon in a classic approach with millitary and kill all Hesbolla fighters with conventional weapons

 

[Forest Green]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1837054706390016206

View: https://x.com/ImtiazMadmood/status/1837054706390016206

 

[yahya]

Perhaps that's true, but the document was posted initially on an IL Telegram channel. What strikes me, it's a letter from Mil Co-intel chief addressed to Sheikh Nasrallah. But where is the usual Islamic Basmala header? Hezbollah got secular lately? Looks like a fake.

 

[yahya]

Another explanation how the pagers might have been weaponized.

 

[BlackBat242]

Oh crap, pacemakers... it is well known they are very vulnerable to things like microwave ovens (from memory) and wifi / smartphones / whatever.
I'm not sure however many terrorists have pacemakers: terrorists by definition are not faint hearted...

Doesnt seem to be unprecedented in the Medical Literature, someone's pacemaker exploded after a battery malfunction.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0012369215429393

NCIS season 19 episode 5 aired Monday, October 18, 2021, “Face the Strange”.

Featured bombs implanted in pacemakers.

 

[yahya]

According to the article from the link below, the AR-924 deal was worth 1.6 million EUR. Considering that Hezbollah purchased 5000 sets, then a unit price would be 320 EUR. That is grossly overpaid considering that it was a wholesale deal and the real value of pagers on the retail market.

How are Kerala-born techie and Hungarian businesswoman involved in Lebanon pager blasts?

A multinational investigation into the deadly pager blasts in Lebanon, which killed dozens and injured over 3,000, has led authorities to Hungarian businesswoman Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono and Kerala-born Norwegian tech entrepreneur Rinson Jose. Both are now under scrutiny for their roles in...

www.firstpost.com

I can’t believe that they accepted the deals with murky companies, which were not generally known to have been established on the commo gear market. There must have been either a desperation to get the pagers from somewhere, especially the manually programmable ones like the AR-924, or a tendency to get out a commission from any kind of deals. Or both.

 

[TomcatViP]

Do you really believe that a terrorist organization is not primarily a criminal one riddled with the usual corruptions and kickbacks?

Reuters made a portrait of one of the infamous individual. Not much but still:

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/trail-mystery-woman-whose-company-licensed-exploding-pagers-2024-09-20/

EDIT:
From CBS News

Her mother, Beatrix Bársony-Arcidiacono, told the AP that her daughter had received unspecified threats and "is currently in a safe place protected by the Hungarian secret services."

The "Hungarian secret services advised her not to talk to media," she said by phone from Sicily.

Hungary's national security authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and the AP could not independently verify the claim.

 

[PMN1]

It is not 'common'. I have seen three or four but they are usually down to poor insertion and/or shoddy componants/knock off.

The move to 'smart' medical devices everywhere would also be liable to hacking/tracking the user. How many wealthy backers are now queueing up to to have theirs checked?

Find your enemy first, then kill him/her when it suits or it is convenient.

Used in Homeland to the kill the Vice President...2013?

There was much speculation at the time as to whether the attack was possible and rumours of Cheney or Rumsfeld?? having his pacemaker chaged??

 

[Foo Fighter]

Not seen 'Homeland' but having a background in medical technical services and acute care units, know it is 'possible'.

Pretty sure Mossad could mask their intrusion too with modern tech know how.

They would be blamed for it so why not get the benefit of the act that goes with the accusation?