How the hell did the Israeli's mange to cause the exploding pagers?

[mids2019]

Just this is really ...how did they do it? Was this the secret service on steroids?

Again, confusing. What does it mean for the safety of Israelis that Hezbollah are firing rockets continually into their country? Why do you imagine that targeting their militants and communications is going to make them less safe?
Would I be happy with your confused hypothetical scenario? I'm 'happy' with any actions that are within international law. Not 'happy' about civilian casualties, obviously. To be clear (once again) the people targeted were Hezbollah terrorists. Why are you glossing over this as if they were not a legitimate target?

It's horrific

Also terrifying that it's being claimed it could happen to phones/iPhones across the world if hacked

@LaurieFairyCake I guess the advice would be not to join a terrorist group that is engaged with active warfare and you should be fine.

So you would be OK if the Palestinian Authority exploded the phones of members of the IDF? 1000s of explosions across Israel, children dead, mums injured as they queue to buy dinner in the supermarket. Palestinians have the right to resist Israeli occupation, they wouldn't be targeting civilians just the armed forces who break international law so a legitimate target. You'd be on here defending their right to do that?

Noone is minimising the impact of conflict on the people in the societies of the ME. Noone is saying no stress, no harm. However, when countries make choices about, say siding with murderous regimes like Iran & Syria, allowing terrorists like Hezbollah to play a significant role in their communities, their economy & their politics then there will be consequences and a lot of the posts on here are at best very naive. Your post seems to suggest that the impact is only on the Lebanese but Hezbollah have been perpetrating this terror against civilians in indiscriminate attacks in Israel for years, most relevant to this discussion, the day after 7 October, which was an attack targetted against Jewish civilians.

Drivel.

Israel are not occupying Lebanon. This was an attack on members of a recognised terrorist group there. Let's stay on topic shall we?

I think if you're not receiving messages from Nasrallah on where to go to fire missiles at Israeli villages and towns, you should be good.

This is not new BTW, people have been killed by explosives in phones (back in the day) or mobile phones for a looong time. If it didn't worry you yesterday, you can sleep quietly.

And the pagers weren't hacked. The Mossad infiltrated the supply chain when Hezbollah ordered the pagers (to evade Israel hacking mobile phones) and pyhyscially added explosives to the pagers.

I'm sure they would if they could. After all, they indiscriminately fire rockets all the time when they have the capability and keep children in tunnels.

So you would be OK if the Palestinian Authority exploded the phones of members of the IDF?

Unlike Hezbollah and Hamas, the IDF is not a terrorist organisation so that's a false equivalence.

Exactly. While obviously I don't support Hamas in any shape or form and how they operate, I do recognise that Palestinians have legitimate claims against Israel.
But Hezbollah? What exactly is their claim against Israel? That they dare to exist?

Actually I stand corrected. Obviously the Palestinian Authority does not fire rockets into Israel or kidnap babies, nor would they even be exploding IDF phones either. I was thinkign Hamas/Islamic Jihad .

Unconfirmed reports of explosions in Iran.

I wonder if the pagers had been handed out in Gaza

Sneaking bombs into commercially available communication devices and then sending a simultaneous signal to explode 💥 thousands of these bombs causing indiscriminate death and injury is a terror attack & war crime no matter who is doing it to whom.

It doesn’t matter whether your cause is good or bad, justified or unjustified. It doesn’t matter if you are a government or paramilitary group or terrorists. It is the type of attack that makes it a terror attack, not who is doing it.

I agree with the PM of Belgium, this was a terror attack.

Also it isn’t a confirmed fact that Israel did this attack. They have been blamed for it, and various new reports seem to be published and hours later retracted amplifying this speculation. The Israeli government isn’t confirming or denying as far as I know. This morning, a news report saying that “informed sources” within Israel are claiming Shin Bet did it I am treating as preliminary. Israel is the #1 suspect given the tit for tat between Israel and Hezbollah but they aren’t the only entity with motive and means within the region.

Whoever did it, they did a terror attack. Whoever did it wants a regional war.

This was not a case of hacking into random phones. This was a case of planting explosives in a shipment of pagers that were purchased by Hezbollah for their operatives. Physically putting explosives inside each one. And then detonating remotely

Well not really, to do that in Gaza they would have to be able to intercept a shipment of pagers into Gaza. That wouldn’t be possible given the smuggling routes are through egypt. It’s a completely different context to operate in.

In Lebanon/iran/syria they were targeting individuals who co-ordinated attacks against Israel. In Gaza they are trying to find actual physical infrastructure as well as individuals.

No, they were legitimate targets in warfare as they are continually attacking Israel. Far better this way than dropping bombs. And the explosvies were not randomly placed in commercially available devices to be used by anyone but those specifically purchased by Hezbollah to be used to coordinate attacks against Israel. The death and injury was not indiscriminate at all but actually highly discriminate plus avoided harm to civilian infrastructure and buildings.

BTW, Shin Bet is not involved in any operations outside of Israel/WB/Gaza. That's only the mossad. Shin bet is internal (like MI5), mossad external (like MI6).

No, they were legitimate targets in warfare as they are continually attacking Israel. Far better this way than dropping bombs. And the explosvies were not randomly placed in commercially available devices to be used by anyone but those specifically purchased by Hezbollah to be used to coordinate attacks against Israel. The death and injury was not indiscriminate at all but actually highly discriminate plus avoided harm to civilian infrastructure and buildings.

BTW, Shin Bet is not involved in any operations outside of Israel/WB/Gaza. That's only the mossad. Shin bet is internal (like MI5), mossad external (like MI6).

@AhaHa

"Ugh. I will withdraw from this thread because it’s just so depressing."

Should read as

"I will withdraw from this thread as for some reason it's not like my usual "conflict is n the Middle East echo chamber and it annoys me that there are people that don't share my views"

It’s worth mentioning that Hezbollah is a designated terror group (many arab countries, the EU, US etc). Countries are allowed to act against terror groups.

"It doesn’t matter whether your cause is good or bad, justified or unjustified. It doesn’t matter if you are a government or paramilitary group or terrorists. It is the type of attack that makes it a terror attack"

So the British Army used tracking devices on IRA weapons and set up ambushes to kill IRA members during the troubles.

Would you classify such actions by the British Army as terrorist as well?

And If Hezbollah is not a terror group then what is it? An armed wing of the Lebanese state? In which case, Israel is more than justified to declare war on Lebanon. Resistance? Resisting what exactly? They're in Lebanon and Israel is not.

Then what the hell was a Taiwanese / Hungarian company doing selling communications equipment (pagers) to a designated terrorist group?

Unlike Hezbollah and Hamas, the IDF is not a terrorist organisation so that's a false equivalence.

The IDF are an occupying force, they are of course a legitimate target. Palestinians have the right to resist occupation.

Interesting that nobody thinks it's OK for Palestinians to cause 'tiny' explosions aimed at legitimate targets in the same way Israel did.

I would have though that if they went off in the evening there is a higher likelihood of family members being hurt. If you are sitting watching tv with kids for example.

They weren’t let loose, they were given out by Hezbollah to their operatives. Israel wasn’t there with a “free pagers for all” stall.

This is irrelevant. The incident happened in Lebanon and targeted Hezbollah. As for resisting occupation, Israel wasn’t occupying Gaza prior to 7th Oct and 7th Oct was an appalling and barbaric terrorist attack on Israeli citizens within Israel which I hope you aren’t trying to justify