Israel deploys explosive pagers in targeted Hezbollah strike

During attacks on Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon, Israel used modified pagers. These devices, from another era, have features that make them useful in specific niches. What is a pager, and what is it used for?

On September 17, Israel conducted an attack on members of the Hezbollah organization. At a scheduled time, thousands of terrorists and individuals associated with Hezbollah, including the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, received a message on their pagers that triggered an explosive device.

Although the explosive charge was tiny, at least a few people were killed, and hundreds were injured. What is a pager – the device used by Israel in the attack?

A pager is the predecessor of the cellular phone. The first devices of this type appeared as early as the 1950s. They informed the user that someone had left a message for them. The user would then call the central office to access the waiting information.

Modern pagers – also known as beepers – operate on a similar principle. In their most common form, they allow information to be sent to the user via radio, such as a short text message or a phone number to call back.

In various versions, pagers are used in places where cell phone use is prohibited and the WiFi network is considered too unreliable, such as hospitals. Pagers are also popular in the food service industry as a calling system for service staff. 

Although there are different types of pagers, in their basic version, these devices are receivers only. They do not have a built-in transmitter allowing for confidential, directed, and one-way communication to a specific user.

In practice, this ensures high privacy – you can communicate with the user, but their location remains unknown. As a result, the pager serves as an attractive communication channel for individuals who want to send a message to a specific recipient, regardless of their location.

Pagers became popular among Hezbollah members after 2022 when they were banned from communicating via cell phones, which could be eavesdropped on by Israeli intelligence. 

Israel took advantage of the use of pagers by terrorists. To make the attack possible, Israeli agents established the company BAC Consulting in Hungary, which manufactured or brokered the sale of pagers using technology from Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo.

In addition to devices sold to regular customers for disguise, the batch of pagers intended for Hezbollah had batteries with explosive charges. The likely course of the attack (or part of it) involved sending a message to the devices that caused them to vibrate. Turning off the vibration required pressing a button, which, in this situation, triggered the battery explosion.