What to know: Hezbollah walkie-talkies explode in Lebanon 1 day after pager attack

Lebanon has been targeted twice in the past two days by exploding pagers and handheld radios in deadly attacks that have killed more than two dozen people and wounded thousands.

The explosions have rocked Lebanon and represent one of the largest security breaches for Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group backed by Iran that has been trading fire over the border with Israel for almost a year in attacks tied to the ongoing Gaza war.

Hezbollah has pinned the blame for the explosive attacks on Israel and vowed to respond, though Israeli officials have yet to publicly comment on the incidents.

Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor and founder of the Conflict Management and Negotiations program at Israel’s Bar Ilan University, said the pager and radio attacks pointed to a “major operation” and a serious weaknesses in Hezbollah.

“The entire process of being able to bring these in undetected into Lebanon. … They got what they ordered, but nobody detected the fact that they had this extra explosive,” he said. “It’s very imaginative.”

Here’s what we know about the attacks in Lebanon this week.

Pagers were reportedly fixed with explosives

The New York Times reported that the first series of explosions Tuesday involved pagers that were secretly packed with explosives.

The messaging devices had 1-2 ounces of explosive material next to the batteries, according to the Times, and a switch was embedded that could be triggered remotely.

The pagers exploded in Beirut and southern Lebanon, reportedly killing 12 people, including two children, and wounding some 2,800 others.

Taiwanese company says Hungarian firm manufactures the pagers

The pagers, the AR-924 model, are from a Taiwanese company named Gold Apollo.

But Gold Apollo said in a statement Wednesday that it has licensed its technology to a Hungarian company, BAC Consulting KFT, which manufactured the pagers that detonated in Lebanon.

Gold Apollo said it “only provides the brand trademark authorization and is not involved in the design or manufacturing of this product.”

BAC was registered as a limited liability company in May 2022 and has an address to a headquarters building in Budapest that also lists several other companies, The Associated Press reported.

However, Hungarian government spokesperson Zoltán Kovács denied the pagers were made in Hungary, writing that the “company in question is a trading intermediary, with no manufacturing or operational site in Hungary.”

“It has one manager registered at its declared address, and the referenced devices have never been in Hungary,” Kovács wrote on the social platform X. “During further investigations, Hungarian national security services are cooperating with all relevant international partner agencies and organizations.”

Israel remains silent on attacks as US calls for restraint

Israel has been silent after the deadly attacks this week, but Israeli officials reportedly briefed the Biden administration after the attack.

Israel rarely comments on covert operations in other countries.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday the U.S. was not involved in the attacks and did not have prior knowledge of them, and he pushed for further restraint from all parties in the Middle East.

“We’ve been very clear and we remain very clear about the importance of all parties avoiding any steps that could further escalate the conflict that we’re trying to resolve in Gaza,” he said. “To see it spread to other fronts — it’s clearly not in the interest of anyone involved to see that happen.”

The U.S. has been trying for months to reach a deal between Hezbollah and Israel that would defuse tensions and stop the cross-border fire, which is increasingly approaching the possibility of an all-out war.

Israel’s fight against Hamas in Gaza also remains out of reach from a cease-fire deal, which complicates ending the conflict with Hezbollah since the Lebanese militant group has promised it would keep fighting so long as the war rages.

Israel has said it must return the some 80,000 residents who have been displaced by the fighting to the north, but it can’t do that without a new arrangement to ensure the residents are safe at the Lebanon border.

Israel’s security Cabinet updated the nation’s war objective this week to include returning its residents to the north.

While Israel has increasingly warned of wider military action in Lebanon, it has not yet taken such action, though with Hamas losing much of its strength in Gaza, more Israeli forces will be free for a larger operation.

Steinberg, from NGO Monitor, said it was possible the pager and radio explosions were a prelude to a larger Israeli operation, assessing that Israel was ready to move toward something bigger against Hezbollah.

He argued that diplomacy was not moving in the right direction to resolve the crisis and that Israel must not show weakness.

“They’re weakened much more than they have been — at least, that’s the Israeli perception — much more than they have been for years, and this is a time for Israel to be able to defend its own interests,” he said. “This is an opportunity.”

But Bronwen Maddox, chief and director of Chatham House, wrote in an analysis that the pager attacks “risk escalating the simmering conflict on the northern border into the regional war that the US and many of Israel’s neighbours have worked hard to avoid.”

“Israel lacks a strategy for peace,” she said, also citing the lack of progress to end the conflicts in Gaza and the Red Sea with the Iran-backed Houthis.

Hezbollah is vowing revenge

Hezbollah’s head of the executive council, Sayyed Hashem Safieddine, said at a funeral service Wednesday that Israel’s “aggression has its own punishment and retribution.”

“And it will come, God willing, for we are a people who will not be broken or defeated,” he said in the speech, according to a Hezbollah media outlet.

Hezbollah’s media office said in a separate statement that it would respond separately to the pager attacks.

“What happened yesterday will increase our determination and resolve to continue on the path of jihad and resistance,” the statement said.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is expected to give a speech on Thursday.

It’s unclear how Hezbollah will respond, but it will likely be limited. Hezbollah launched a major rocket attack against Israel last month after the death of its top military commander, Fuad Shukr, but Israel was able to preemptively take out many targets and minimize damage.

Questions surround handheld radio explosions

The handheld radios, or walkie-talkies, detonated Wednesday, killing at least 14 people and wounding hundreds of others after they went off, also burning homes and cars.

It’s unclear if the radio devices were breached in the same manner as the pagers.

Hezbollah has lost hundreds of fighters in the conflict with Israel, including high-ranking officers like Shukr, who was the right-hand man to Nasrallah.

The militant group has been using low-tech devices such as pagers and walkie-talkies to avoid Israeli surveillance and tracking.