{"id":274194,"date":"2024-09-23T12:00:03","date_gmt":"2024-09-23T11:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=274194"},"modified":"2024-09-23T14:38:32","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T13:38:32","slug":"how-did-hezbollahs-pagers-explode-in-lebanon-explainer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/09\/how-did-hezbollahs-pagers-explode-in-lebanon-explainer\/","title":{"rendered":"How Did Hezbollah\u2019s Pagers Explode in Lebanon? Explainer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

A soldier on duty near American University of Beirut Medical Center after 2,750 people, including Hezbollah fighters and medics, were wounded when the pagers they use to communicate exploded simultaneously across Lebanon on 17 Sep 2024.
[Mohamed Azakir\/Reuters]<\/p><\/div>\n

Localised explosions across Lebanon open a new chapter in one of the region\u2019s most established conflicts.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

17 Sep 2024 <\/em>– Hundreds of pagers belonging to the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah have simultaneously exploded<\/a>\u00a0across Lebanon.<\/p>\n

At the time of publishing, at least nine<\/a> people have been killed and 2,750 wounded, according to security services and the Lebanese health minister.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What\u2019s a pager? Why use them?<\/h2>\n

Pagers are small communication devices used commonly before mobile phones became widespread.<\/p>\n

The devices display a short text message for the user, relayed by telephone through a central operator.<\/p>\n

Unlike mobile phones, pagers work on radio waves, the operator sending a message by radio frequency \u2013 rather than the internet \u2013 unique to the recipient\u2019s device.<\/p>\n

It is thought that the basic technology used in pagers as well as their reliance upon physical hardware means they are harder to monitor, making them popular with groups such as Hezbollah where both mobility and security are paramount.<\/p>\n

What happened?<\/h2>\n

The series of explosions began at about 15:30 local time<\/a>\u00a0and lasted for around an hour.<\/p>\n

Casualty numbers are still being confirmed.<\/p>\n

One eight-year-old girl has been confirmed among the dead.<\/p>\n

Mohammad Mahdi Ammar, the son of Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar,\u00a0 has also been reported killed.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah confirmed that two of its fighters had been killed.<\/p>\n

Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad told Al Jazeera: \u201cAbout 2,750 people were injured, \u2026 more than 200 of them critically\u201d with injuries mostly reported to the face, hands and stomach.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was also injured in the explosions.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Lebanese Civil Defense first-responders carry a man who was wounded when his handheld pager exploded in the southern port city of Sidon on 17 Sep 2024.
[AP Photo]<\/p><\/div>\n

TO CONTINUE READING Go to Original – aljazeera.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

17 Sep 2024 – Localised explosions across Lebanon open a new chapter in one of the region\u2019s most established conflicts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":274196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[3339,3264,88,179,2097,767,427,880],"class_list":["post-274194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-north-africa","tag-hezbollah","tag-idf","tag-israel","tag-japan","tag-lebanon","tag-middle-east","tag-palestine","tag-state-terrorism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274194"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":274203,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274194\/revisions\/274203"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}