The Day Thousands of Pagers Exploded in Lebanon

from The New York Times I'm Sabrina. Tavern and this is the. [Music]. daily today inside Israel's audacious. and deadly plot to blow up thousands of. electronic devices across. Lebanon my colleague Patrick Kingsley on. what it accomplished and at what cost. [Music]. [Applause].

it's Thursday September. [Music]. 19th so Patrick you've been reporting on. these remarkable series of attacks. across Lebanon over the past two days. tell me what happened well at around. 3:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday. afternoon suddenly there were hundreds. if not thousands of explosions.

across the country of. Lebanon there was a man who seemed to. blow up next to a fruit stall in a. [Music]. market there was someone else who seemed. to blow up in smoke at the checkout. counter at the. supermarket and there was a man who was.

hit while he was on a motorcycle in. heavy. traffic and basically what had happened. was that the pages of hundreds if not. thousands of operatives from the. Lebanese militia Hezbollah exploded. almost all at. once it set off chaos across Lebanon in. the capital bayout in eastern Lebanon in. southern Lebanon.

and hundreds of ambulances were called. into action fing people suddenly to. hospitals the hospitals themselves were. [Music]. pandemonium there were people coming in. blinded there were people coming in with. maimed torsos maed groin areas wherever.

theyve been holding their pages on their. bodies there was a general sense of. Terror and fear spreading across. Lebanese society as they realized that. an everyday item such as a pager was. able to explode in public spaces like. shops markets and even traffic jams okay. so there was pandemonium throughout.

Lebanese Society what do we know about. who was behind the attack we know from. our teams reporting that the attack was. mounted by some part of the Israeli. military Israel is locked in a yearslong. conflict with Hezbollah that escalated. after Hamas attacked Israel on October. 7th at that point Hezbollah started. firing on Israel in solidarity with. Hamas and since then Israel and.

Hezbollah have been exchanging missile. and Rocket fire all along the Israel. Lebanon border Hezbollah is not a state. actor it's a militia but it is the most. powerful armed group in Lebanon and. probably the most powerful non-state. actor across the Middle East and it has. what amounts to a standing army that. army has been exchanging fire with the. is military for nearly a year now and.

this appeared to be the latest Salvo in. that conflict right very important. border there to the north and one that. you and I Patrick have done a number of. episodes questioning whether the. conflict there that is of course kind of. in some ways secondary to the conflict. in Gaza might spill over into something. bigger so an area that has seen. increasing conflict why pagers though. why are Hezbollah guys walking around.

with pagers you would think that they. would use cell phones like everyone else. in 2024 right but hasah has realized. that Israel is able to hack cell phones. intercept cell phone messages and derive. a huge amount of information about. Hezbollah from those intercepts and to. try and blunt that Israeli intelligence. threat they seem to have switched to. pages this very low-fi old technology.

basic technology to prevent Israel from. hacking their Communications and and. their devices instead the opposite. happened Israel still managed to hack. the pages not only to intercept messages. but to turn those pages into explosive. devices how did they manage to pull it. off what did they actually do we. understand from the reporting of our.

colleagues Ron Bergman and Sher Frankle. that at some point in the creation or. transportation of these pages to Lebanon. Israeli operatives placed within those. pages several grams of explosives and a. mechanism that would allow the. explosives to be activated on the. receipt of a particular message hm and.

what seems to have happened at 3:30 on. Tuesday afternoon is that a message was. sent to hundreds if not thousands of. these Pages the pages beeped for several. seconds attracting the attention of. their owners who in some cases seem to. have taken them out to look at the pages. to see what message was coming in and at. that point the pages exploded killing. some people Ming thousands of others and. how did Israel actually get to the page. themselves we don't have the full.

picture here what we do know is that the. pages were made in the name of a. Taiwanese company that Taiwanese company. has said it was not actually involved in. the making of these particular pages and. in fact it was subcontracted to a. company based in Hungary the Hungarian. government has said the pages were not. made within Hungary itself and so. there's a lot of uncertainty about who. EX actly made these pages and at what.

point they might have been intercepted. during their manufacturer or during the. supply chain process and as those. questions were starting to be asked and. in some cases answered the story got. even more. [Music]. complicated a second set of of. explosions hit across Lebanon on.

Wednesday CLS had just. gathered for the. funeral and we heard a loud boom and. these were not exploding pages but other. kinds of communication devices including. two-way radios and these explosions of. the walkie-talkies seem to have been. bigger explosions with perhaps more. explosives hidden within the devices and. those again sent a wave of horror and.

Terror across Lebanon raising fears that. any device might now be a Target and. making people wary of even their. telephones and their personal computers. and Patrick between these two attacks. what was the total death toll at least. 12 people were killed in the pager. attacks on Tuesday and as of very early. Thursday at least 20 people were killed. in the second round of explosions on.

Wednesday and more than 3,000 people. were injured across both. days Hezbollah had not yet announced. whether any of the people killed in the. second round were its own members but on. Tuesday they said that eight of 12. killed were from its own ranks and we. know from the Lebanese authorities that. two of those 12 were children and also.

the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon. appears to have been seriously injured. in one of the attacks Iran being. hezbollah's biggest benefactor so even. the Iranian Ambassador had a Hezbollah. pager I don't think we quite know. whether he had the pager or maybe he was. with someone who had one but certainly. he was in proximity of one of these. Pages Patrick with that in mind I'm. wondering how we should think about this. attack because on the one hand it was.

very precise really aimed directly at. these Hezbollah operatives but on the. other hand it feels like it really. stepped over the line into daily life in. Lebanon these children a medic just the. fact that these explosions were going. off in such public places what are. people saying about this attack you. summarized the debate about this attack. perfectly on the one hand you have. Israelis and their supporters hailing.

what they see as a remarkably precise. and ingenious and sophisticated attack. that has pinpointed the whereabouts of. specific militants from. Hezbollah and managed to take them out. in hundreds of locations across Lebanon. yes in public places but with small. enough explosives that the people that. were mainly harmed by these attacks were.

the Hezbollah militants themselves and. even though these attacks caused so much. fear and Spilled so much blood in. Lebanon to Israelis this was a much more. discriminate attack than the kind of. Rocket fire that has been sent by. Hezbollah into Israeli territory nearly. every day for the past 11 or 12 months.

even killing a a group of school. children as they played football in a. town one weekend in the Goan Heights on. the other hand critics are saying that. this was in fact not a very precise and. well- weighted attack but almost an. indiscriminate assault on thousands of. places across civilian life throughout. Lebanon these may have been Hezbollah.

operatives but they were not conducting. military activity at the time in which. they were hit some of them were in shops. some of them were in markets some of. them were in the street and by targeting. these people in such public places. Israel according to these critics at. least was enacting some kind of state. sponsored terrorism that has sent fears. throughout Lebanese society and prompted.

Lebanese citizens to wonder whether. their device their phone their computer. could be the next thing to be struck. okay so a range of views but whatever. you think of this attack it is clear. that it's a major escalation and a real. ratcheting up of the conflict on this. very important border between Lebanon. and Israel which makes me wonder what. Israel was trying to achieve here well. in the short term it's quite clear what.

they were up to they are trying to. project strength they're trying to deter. an enemy that has been firing missiles. into Israeli communities since October. but in the long term it's a bit of a. [Music]. mystery and both Israeli officials and. Israel analysts that I've been speaking. to in the last 24 hours don't really. understand what this strategic goal is.

right now they understand what what the. short-term benefits are but what comes. next what Israel wants to happen next is. [Music]. unclear we'll be right back.

so Patrick you said in the short term. it's clear what Israel's up to here but. in the long term it's really a mystery. let's take this just a bit at a time so. walk me through the shortterm goal for. Israel well in the short term it clearly. deals a blow to one of its biggest. enemies an enemy that it's been fighting. for nearly a year now it incapacitates.

thousands of Hezbollah operatives it. sends a message of strength it instills. fear and conceivably it makes people. wary about using any kind of electronics. if this is what Israel has the capacity. to do to something as obscure as a pager. it also to some extent restores The. Prestige of Israel's fabled intelligence. agencies that have long been revered and. feared for their clandestine.

operations but which really took a blow. to their reputations after the October. 7th attack on Israel that Israel's. intelligence agencies its spies its. military failed to either predict in. full or to prepare properly for so an. attack that is as intricate as blowing. up hundreds if not thousands of pages. simil mously in a foreign country go.

some way to restoring their Aura in the. eyes of both friends and foes okay but. what about the longer term though we. know that Hezbollah has said that it. will keep fighting Israel until there's. a ceasefire in Gaza which of course at. this point seems to be a very long way. off so from Israel's. perspective how does this attack factor. into its strategy to get Hezbollah to.

stop well for months The Hope was that. the fighting along the Israel Lebanon. border would end if the fighting in Gaza. also ended and that creates a bigger. problem day by day for Israel because. the war in Gaza shows no sign of ending. the negotiations for a truce in Gaza. have reached a deadlock it doesn't seem. like we are going to see a ceasefire. there between Hamas and Israel for weeks.

if not months and as a result then the. war between hisbah and Israel is also. likely to continue for weeks if not. months so to try and shift the Needle. and to disconnect hezbollah's fight from. Hamas and to disconnect the fate of. Lebanon from that of Gaza Israel appears. to have mounted these explosions of. pages and other Communications devices. on Tuesday and Wednesday. the hope is that all of that will cow.

Hezbollah enough that they will stand. down that they will stop linking their. fight to hamas's fight and agree to some. kind of ceasefire even as the war in. Gaza continues and Patrick is that. realistic like is that going to work. that's the big question Israel has tried. all sorts of small escalations in recent. months it even assassinated the top.

military figure within Hezbollah for. shukur earlier on this year that did not. deter Hezbollah so what experts are. saying is that Hezbollah is unlikely to. be deterred by this latest attack also. and in fact there's a risk that it may. be even more energized and even more. motivated to maintain its battle with. Israel precisely because Israel's. infiltration of its Communications.

networks was so Brazen and so. embarrassing to heah this was a. humiliation the idea that so many. devices were intercepted and hacked and. poisoned as it were by explosives was a. catastrophy for hezbollah's own sense of. strength and its own Aura and people. that follow the group say that it's. unlikely that they will be able to. capitulate in the aftermath of something. like that and that their only option is.

to continue fighting this low intensity. border war or even to escalate and that. that in turn will prompt Israel to hit. back harder and then we will have the. allout war between Hezbollah and Israel. that people have been fearing for months. or all the way back to October right. Hezbollah has many many thousands of. Fighters so though more than 3,000 may. have been maimed there are many many. more and Hezbollah is probably very.

angry right now as you're saying it was. a. humiliation and I guess my question. Patrick is you know surely Israel knows. that so I wonder whether there's any. world in which this was kind of an. intentional act by Israel to try to. draw Hezbollah into a wider. War that's certainly one assessment. that's been made by some people who. follow this conflict closely that this.

was a provocation designed to get. Hezbollah to react strongly and then. give Israel a pretext to react even. stronger still or even to invade. Southern Lebanon the problem with that. argument is if that genuinely is. Israel's strategic intention why did the. Israeli military not immediately follow. its explosions on Tuesday and Wednesday. with an invasion that would have been. the perfect time to invade when. Hezbollah was in shock it was in.

disarray many of its Fighters were in. hospital others were trying to figure. out what was going on that would have. been the moment to escalate to allout. war that said there has been a rising. rhetoric from Israeli leaders in recent. days the defense minister yav Gallant. has talked about a military solution. being perhaps the only solution to the. conflict he also said the war is. entering a new phase. the trouble for people like me and.

others that have to analyze these kind. of statements is that it's clear. nevertheless that these Israeli leaders. are still keeping themselves one or two. steps away from saying without. equivocation that they are going to. enter into some kind of allout war or. even invade Lebanon and it still feels. like Israel is leaving the door open to. some kind of Med ation some kind of.

diplomatic. negotiation I guess Patrick these two. days and the attacks of these two days. really do feel like they pitch us into a. new more dangerous place I wonder what. you are going to be looking for in the. days and weeks ahead to help answer some. of these questions well in the immediate. sense we're looking at Israeli troop. movements will they send more troops to. the north we're looking at Israeli. rhetoric we're also looking at a speech.

that is set to take place at 5:00 local. time on Thursday afternoon from the head. of hasbullah Hassan nah and we'll be. keeping a close eye to see whether he. himself announces an escalation to see. whether he takes a more consiliary or. ambiguous stance would also be. monitoring all the shuttle diplomacy. that's set to take place between Israel.

and Lebanon in the coming days and we. will also be keeping an eye out for yet. more. [Music]. surprises yeah because who would have. ever thought that something like this. would happen no one outside of Israeli. intelligence circles could have. predicted that yesterday thousands of. pages would explode suddenly in the. middle of the Lebanese day. [Music].

Patrick it is now 12:30 a.m. for you and. I really appreciate your time thank you. thank you. Sabrina good night good. night on Wednesday night the times. reported that the Hungarian company. subcontracted to make the pagers was in. fact a series of his isi shell companies.

and that the pagers had been made by. Israeli Intelligence. Officers the first batch of booby. trapped pagers shipped to Lebanon in. 2022 and production ramped up when. Hezbollah leadership told operatives to. forgo their. phones in Israel Intelligence Officers. referred to the pagers as quote buttons. that could be pushed when the time. seemed. [Music]. ripe we'll be right.

back here's what else you should know. today on Wednesday our patient approach. over the past year has paid dividends. inflation is now much closer to our. objective and we have gained greater. confidence that inflation is moving. sustainably toward 2% we're the Federal. Reserve cut interest rates by half a.

percentage point an unusually large move. and a clear signal that Central Bankers. think they are winning their war against. inflation the fed's decision lowers. rates to about. 4.9% down from a more than two decade. High the cut is meant to prevent the. economy from slowing so much that the. job market begins to weaken. significantly so far fed officials have. managed to slow inflation without. causing major economic problems for the.

White House the fed's announcement was. encouraging and signaled that after. years of Rapid price increases a return. to normal inflation was in sight but. Republican Presidential nominee Donald. Trump accused the FED of playing. politics by cutting interest rates which. ultimately helps consumers so close to. the election. today's episode was produced by Will.

Reed Jessica Chong and Michelle Banja it. was edited by Devon Taylor contains. original music by Pat mccusker and was. engineered by Chris Wood our theme music. is by Jim brunberg and Ben lansberg of. wonderly special thanks to Shira Frankle. [Music].

that's it for the daily I'm Sabrina. tavernes see you tomorrow. [Music].