Israel hits Hezbollah with pager bombs: Dozens dead, thousands hurt

Dozens were killed and hundreds injured. This is the image of Israel's probable revenge on Hezbollah fighters. Not only pagers but also other electronics were exploding. We asked experts what they think of this form of attack. They do not hide that they have no ethical doubts in this context.

A series of explosions swept through Libya and Syria on Tuesday. More than 3,000 pagers, with explosives placed inside them during production, exploded. According to official data, Israeli intelligence knew these devices would end up in the hands of Hezbollah members, an organization hostile to Israel and supported by Iran. Several dozen people died, including a child standing with their father, and more than 4,000 were injured, which is significantly more than the number of devices.

The attacks continued on Wednesday, with other electronics exploding in dozens of locations.

We asked Jarosław Kociszewski, a journalist and Middle East expert, for his opinion on this action. He notes that using small devices like these to carry out attacks has precedents. He cites examples like the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, who placed bombs in mail packages in the USA. Another example is the assassination of a Hamas leader in the 1990s, who died from the explosion of a cell phone.

Kociszewski considers the infiltration of the terrorist organization's supply chain to be the main novelty in this case, as European law considers Hezbollah's militant wing a terrorist group.

"It was like sending bombs directly into the hands of very specific people," he asserts. "We are talking about a very targeted, well-thought-out, innovative approach, which shows that it is possible to significantly weaken this organization without necessarily bombing an entire city."

"You are talking about a targeted attack, but in the footage, we see bombs in pagers exploding, for example, in a store. No one chooses where exactly the bomb will explode, so an innocent child or bystander could be harmed," we point out.

"In any war, an innocent person can be harmed," responds Jarosław Kociszewski. "Here, we are talking about an extremely precise, targeted attack. I mean 'penetrating' the delivery of devices intended for members of a specific organization and attacking members of that specific organization. There are no ethical doubts about it. These are people who could just as easily be bombed from the air using aircraft bombs or missiles because it is wartime. In such a case, there would be significantly more casualties. And it would also be under international law. This targeted and precise action allowed attacking and bringing chaos into the enemy's ranks while minimizing civilian casualties," he continues.

Marek Dukaczewski, Brigadier General of the Polish Armed Forces and former head of Military Intelligence Services is not as unequivocal in his ethical assessment of the attacks. He does not doubt that the international community may criticize this method for endangering innocent people.

"These pagers were not specifically targeted at eliminating Hezbollah fighters or all those possessing the device," he points out. "In the case of an accidental explosion or activation after a specific connection, the pager user could be in a crowd of people, leading to civilian casualties. This is not the first time this has happened."

The general mentions that Israeli services had previously used electronic devices to eliminate their enemies through explosions. However, it had never happened on such a scale.

"We are not only talking about the killed but also thousands of injured people. For instance, people who lost their sight," he says. "This changes the scale but also reminds us that these new technologies, which we benefit from, can be 'enhanced' and used against various people."

Our interlocutors do not want to predict what will happen next in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, especially since the situation with the pagers has not yet been fully clarified.

"Currently, we don't even know whether the detonation was accidental or surgically executed," notes Marek Dukaczewski. "Therefore, it is hard to say what Hezbollah's next moves will be. For now, we can only assess that the effectiveness of Israeli services is high," he adds.

"The whole story was surprising, so it's unclear what to expect. Maybe Hezbollah will decide on retaliation, or perhaps Israel will decide on a ground operation because it has significantly weakened Hezbollah," comments Jarosław Kociszewski.

In the afternoon, more was already known. Israel announced attacks on Lebanon.