Israel added explosives to pagers imported from Taiwan: Report
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/17/world/middleeast/israel-hezbollah-pagers-explosives.html
The Israeli military hid explosive material in a batch of Taiwan-made pagers to carry out Tuesday’s attack on Hezbollah members in Lebanon, according to US officials briefed on the operation, The New York Times reports.
Hezbollah had ordered the pagers from Taiwanese company Gold Apollo, but they had been tampered with before reaching Lebanon, some of the officials claimed.
Most of the pagers were the company’s AP924 model, though three other Gold Apollo models were also in the shipment, according to the report.
As little as one to two ounces (about 30 to 60 grams) of explosive material was implanted next to the battery in each pager, two of the sources said, while a detonator was also embedded that could be triggered remotely.
At least nine people have been killed and 2,750 wounded after pagers used by members of the Iran-backed group exploded simultaneously across Lebanon and Syria. Israel is yet to claim the attack.
Err?
US says ‘not involved’ and ‘not aware’ of pager blasts The United States says it wasn’t aware in advance and had no involvement in mass explosions of pagers that targeted the Lebanese militia Hezbollah.
US does nothing but lie. Politicians or media, it doesn't matter, lies upon lies.
Taiwan’s Gold Apollo denies making pagers used in Lebanon blasts
Gold Apollo, a Taiwanese firm that manufactures pagers, did not make the devices used in the detonations in Lebanon on Tuesday, the company’s founder Hsu Ching-Kuang told reporters on Wednesday.
Hsu said the pagers used in the explosions were made by a company in Europe that had the right to use the Taiwanese firm’s brand, Reuters added.
We reported earlier on a New York Times article that claimed Hezbollah had ordered the pagers from Gold Apollo, citing US officials briefed on the operation.
How will Lebanon pager blasts affect Gaza truce talks?
The attack targeting Hezbollah members in Lebanon has put Biden’s hopes of a Gaza ceasefire further out of reach.
The US has watched for many weeks now as the Israeli military has been escalating its war preparations for a wider war with Lebanon. The US president, just one day earlier, dispatched a senior diplomat to the region, who met with top Israeli officials. The fear from the US standpoint is that an all-out war would not help Israel with its goal of bringing back the tens of thousands of Israelis who are displaced.
But now, with the fact that these attacks have occurred within Lebanon and there have been many many casualties, this is only going to make that effort for a ceasefire even harder to achieve.
In the midst of all of this, the White House says it is still gathering information. It says that it will not comment but the State Department says it has no knowledge of any US involvement. The Pentagon is also saying that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has in fact spoken with his Israeli counterpart and stressed the need for a diplomatic solution to the conflict in the region.
We also know that Secretary of State Antony Blinken is travelling to Egypt, where he is meeting with not only Egyptian mediators but also those from Qatar as well as of course the US.
What we know now is that there is a revamped proposal – one that is six weeks in duration and that the US – along with its counterparts Egypt and Qatar – is looking to put pressure on Israel as well as Hamas to try and get some sort of six-week ceasefire deal. The goal is to try and get Israeli captives out of Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
The hope is that this can be achieved before Biden leaves office.
Still trying for a temporary pause instead of a ceasefire...
Australian senator calls for accountability for ‘sickening warfare’ in Lebanon blasts
Senator Mehreen Faruqi has said the perpetrators of “the horrific pagers attack” in Lebanon “must be held to account”, in a post on social media.
Faruqi, who is also the deputy leader of the Australian Greens, added that the attack was “exactly the kind of sickening warfare” people were protesting against in Melbourne, referring to recent demonstrations against an arms fair in Australia‘s largest city.
Hezbollah pagers compromised in a ‘major state operation’
Elijah Magnier, a military and political analyst, explained how the pagers used in the attack on Hezbollah members were compromised.
“There is an explosive – a type of PETN – that has been embedded within the pager electronic circuit, showing an advanced level of technical expertise and the involvement of a state-level intelligence agency,” Magnier told Al Jazeera from Brussels.
“The shipment was on its way, not directly to Lebanon, because it’s forbidden for Lebanon to receive these kinds of devices, and stopped on the harbour nearby for three months. And according to the Hezbollah investigation, that was enough time for the Israelis to plant the explosive that is very highly explosive.”
Magnier also explained how the explosions took place.
“The way the Israelis did it is they sent a message to these pagers. And with the message, there were errors. Three times errors. And the people needed to look at it and the pager started vibrating. And the pager exploded. This is why more than 300 people lost both hands and many others lost one eye or two eyes, while 150 others lost part of their stomach.”
The investigators were able to reach these conclusions from the pagers that did not explode, Magnier said.
“Because they were thousands unexploded, others that burned and there were some failures in the trigger system of the pager and that allowed the investigators to reconnect the dots and understand how this happened,” he said.
A man’s bag explodes in a supermarket in Beirut, Lebanon September 17, 2024 in this screengrab from a video obtained from social media
