Probably because he goes to places without cell phone coverage. Pagers work on radio frequencies.

It was a shipment that went to Hezbollah, yet they are more than just the fighters in the South. And it wouldn't surprise me if people gave these pagers to family and friends to use as well. Or left them lying around. 2 kids were killed as well, no news on who among the wounded. And 14 of them exploded in Syria.

They would have been exploding anywhere, on busses, shopping malls, busy streets. Unintended (or was it) death and mutilation is guaranteed. It's a big scale terrorist attack.

What is also scary is that they have now given these ideas to others.
Maybe let's say Russia decides to plant explosives in new smartphones delivered to countries that support Ukraine.

Besides the ethics of this I got to admit I admire the ingenuity. Quite an impressive feat, I couldn’t guess how they managed this. Seems now also walkie-talkies have exploded.

Correct, need it for work. Government still pays for the pager network.

The reason why its' retained is that it's a "guaranteed" service, where phone networks are not.

So while we are all using phones and special apps, there have been multiple instances in the past where entire mobile networks have fallen over during big emergencies... Which is when you need a pager the most.

The other issue is coverage, less of an issue today thankfully, but I can go to some extreme and remote areas where phone service will never exist outside of satellite.

Looks like it's much worse than we realized

Whichever group is responsible for this should be labelled as a terrorist organization.

It could be that the manufacturing plant is responsible. They should be investigated for terrorism.

I'm not going to jump to conclusions that it's the Israeli or Saudi government, but any government responsible should be brought before an international court on terrorism and murder charges.

That would be Mossad. They have a track record of assassinations all over the world.

Analysts say Mossad likely hid explosives in pagers before they reached Hezbollah

https://www.timesofisrael.com/analysts-say-mossad-likely-hid-explosives-in-pagers-before-they-reached-hezbollah/

Israel has scored a major intelligence success by apparently infiltrating a supply chain to cause the simultaneous explosion of hundreds of Hezbollah pagers in a blow for the Lebanese terror group and its Iranian backers, analysts say.

A source close to Hezbollah, asking not to be identified, told AFP that “the pagers that exploded concern a shipment recently imported by Hezbollah of 1,000 devices,” which appear to have been “sabotaged at [the] source.”

Sky News Arabia quoted sources saying that the Mossad spy agency got hold of Hezbollah’s communication devices before they were handed over to the terror group.

The Israeli spy agency placed a quantity of PETN, a highly explosive material, on the batteries of the devices, and detonated them by raising the temperature of the batteries from afar, the source said.

A Lebanese security source quoted by Al Jazeera said an explosive weighing less than 20 grams had been placed in each pager.

A video circulating on social media purports to show the moment that a pager used by a Hezbollah operative exploded in Lebanon. According to Lebanese media, dozens were injured after Israel allegedly hacked the devices and detonated them. https://t.co/1RMiF8wqAA pic.twitter.com/b07wTuRQ0N

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) September 17, 2024

Even if, it is not extraordinary if these Hezbollah members gave some to family members, including kids. In companies people give company stuff to family members if it is useful. And a pager can be useful in these regions far beyond bomb building.

This literally puts the terror in terrorism.
People having to be afraid of being near all types of elctronic devices...

That's 24/7 all day, every day.

Indeed. The chance of getting into a terrorist attack is miniscule, yet booby trapping devices is 24/7 terror.

‘Weaponising an object used by civilians is strictly prohibited’

While the pagers and walkie-talkies rigged to explode were used by Hezbollah members, there was no guarantee who was holding the device at the time it detonated.

Many of the casualties were not Hezbollah fighters but members of the group’s extensive civilian operations mainly serving Lebanon’s Shia community. At least two health workers were among those killed on Tuesday.

Doctors, nurses, paramedics, charity workers, teachers and office administrators work for Hezbollah-linked organisations, and an unknown number had pagers.

Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor of law and international peace studies at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, said booby traps are banned under international law. “Weaponising an object used by civilians is strictly prohibited,” she said.

The UN human rights chief, Volker Turk, called for an independent investigation into the mass explosions, saying, “the fear and terror unleashed is profound”.

In the village of Nabi Sheet in the Bekaa Valley, dozens gathered to mourn nine-year-old Fatima Abdullah, another victim of a pager blast. Her mother – wearing black and donning a yellow Hezbollah scarf – wept alongside other women and children as they gathered around the little girl’s coffin before her burial.