122-511: Related Lebanon Iran, Iraq and Syria Yemen and the Red Sea Deaths Related topics On 17 and 18 September 2024, thousands of handheld pagers and hundreds of walkie-talkies intended for use by Hezbollah exploded simultaneously in two separate events across Lebanon and Syria in an Israeli attack. The attack killed at least 42 people, including at least 12 civilians, and injured at least 4,000 civilians, according to
244-507: A Palestinian nationalist Islamist movement. They formed in 1987, and are the largest Islamist movement in the Palestinian territories. It maintains an uncompromising stance on the "complete liberation of Palestine", often using political violence to achieve its goals. Recent statements suggest a shift in focus toward ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and establishing
366-634: A controlled explosion by the Lebanese Army . Hezbollah supporters reportedly prevented journalists from filming the incident at the AUBMC. The Lebanese Red Cross dispatched 30 ambulances to transport victims in the affected areas. The targeted devices were reported as Icom IC-V82 VHF walkie-talkies , known to be used by Hezbollah. Manufacture of the IC-V82 model ceased in 2014, and Icom had previously issued an advisory warning about counterfeit radios, including
488-756: A declaration of war by Israel. Initially Israel denied involvement, but in November 2024 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted Israeli responsibility. Following the explosions, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant announced a "new phase" of the war in northern Israel and Lebanon had begun. Hezbollah vowed retaliation, launching a rocket attack on northern Israel a few days later that struck cities such as Nazareth and Kiryat Bialik , injuring several civilians. Ten days later, Israel assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an airstrike in Beirut. Shortly after
610-514: A Lebanese expert on Hezbollah, said the attacks mostly struck civilian workers, leaving its military wing largely unaffected. On 11 November, the Lebanese Minister of Labor made a formal complaint, in which he stated that the pagers wounded or killed 4,000 civilians – much higher than initial reports of casualties. It was initially unclear if only Hezbollah members were carrying the pagers, but during his speech Secretary-General Nasrallah clarified
732-647: A Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders . Hamas has been responsible for numerous suicide bombings and rocket attacks targeting Israeli civilians. Australia, Canada, the EU, Japan, New Zealand, and the UK have designated Hamas a "terrorist organisation". In 2010 it attempted to derail the peace talks between Israel and the PA. In 2017, it adopted a new charter , removing antisemitic language and shifting focus from Jews to Zionists. Scholars differ on Hamas' objectives, with some saying it seeks
854-502: A Palestinian state within 1967 borders while others believe Hamas still seeks the destruction of Israel . Before the attack, Saudi Arabia warned Israel of an "explosion" as a result of the continued occupation, Egypt had warned of a catastrophe unless there was political progress, and Palestinian Authority officials gave similar warnings. Less than two months before the attacks, King Abdullah II of Jordan lamented that Palestinians had "no civil rights; no freedom of mobility". Over
976-466: A call to arms, with Deif calling on "Muslims everywhere to launch an attack". In the evening Hamas launched another barrage of about 150 rockets towards Israel, with explosions reported in Yavne , Givatayim , Bat Yam , Beit Dagan , Tel Aviv, and Rishon Lezion. Simultaneously, around 6,000 Palestinian militants and civilians infiltrated Israel from Gaza breaching the border in 119 places. The infiltration
1098-634: A ceasefire also happen in Gaza , where 40,000 Palestinians have been killed , with at least half identified as women and children. From 8 October 2023 to 20 September 2024, Hezbollah has launched 1,900 cross border attacks, and Israel has launched another 8,300. The fighting killed 564 in Lebanon (including 133 civilians) and 52 in Israel (including 27 civilians), displacing entire communities in both countries, with significant damage to civilian infrastructure. On 10 September,
1220-485: A coordinated, month-long operation to invade and occupy Israeli towns, cities, and kibbutzim, including attacking Ashkelon by sea and reaching Kiryat Gat , 20 miles into Israel. The scale of weapons, supplies, and plans indicated, according to Israel, that Hamas intended to inflict mass casualties on Israeli civilians and military forces over an extended period. Western and Middle Eastern security officials gathered evidence suggesting that Hamas intended to invade as far as
1342-705: A dedicated communications link. Automated monitoring and escalation software clients, often used in hospitals, IT departments and alarm companies, tend to prefer direct connections because of the increased reliability. Small paging systems, such as those used in restaurant and retail establishments, often integrate a keyboard and paging system into a single box, reducing both cost and complexity. Paging systems support several popular direct connection protocols, including TAP , TNPP, SNPP and WCTP , as well as proprietary modem- and socket-based protocols. Additionally, organizations often integrate paging systems with their Voice-mail and PBX systems, conceptually attaching pagers to
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#17329027987461464-430: A local base station, or through a telephone number assigned to each individual pager. In the 1990s, pagers became popular among the general public as a cheaper, smaller, and more reliable alternative to mobile phones . Bell System Bellboy radio pagers each used three reed receiver relays, each relay tuned to one of 33 different frequencies, selectively ringing a particular customer when all three relays were activated at
1586-452: A meeting with Israeli generals to discuss "preparation for defensive and offensive operations on all fronts". In a statement the next day, Halevi said: "We have many capabilities that we have not yet activated... we have seen some of these things, it seems to me that we are well prepared and we are preparing these plans going forward." He also said that Israel will move further in stages, with each stage more painful for Hezbollah, and stated that
1708-443: A message has been successfully delivered to a pager. Because of this, if a one-way pager is turned off or is not receiving a usable signal at the time a message is transmitted, the message will not be received and the sender of the message will not be notified of this fact. In the mid-1990s, some paging companies began offering a service, which allowed a customer to call their pager-number and have numeric messages read back to them. This
1830-488: A month later, the Iranian Civil Administration Organization issued a ban on all electronic communication devices, with the exception of mobile phones, on all commercial passenger flights. Shortly after the attack, Hezbollah issued a statement placing blame for the attack on Israel. While Israeli officials did not immediately comment on the attack, at least two US officials and a senior diplomat in
1952-439: A number of those injured showed signs of something being blown up directly in their face, with some losing one or both eyes, while others had shrapnel in their brains. The Lebanese health ministry reported that 300 people had lost both eyes and 500 people had lost one eye as a result of the pager attacks. Other doctors saw severe hand, waist and facial injuries, reporting patients with fingers torn, hands amputated, eyes popped out of
2074-416: A one-way pager is a passive receiver only (it sends no information back to the base station), its location cannot be tracked. However, this can also be disadvantageous, as a message sent to a pager must be broadcast from every paging transmitter in the pager's service area. Thus, if a pager has nationwide service, a message sent to it could be intercepted by criminals or law enforcement agencies anywhere within
2196-483: A paging network and are less subject to these delays. For this reason, older forms of message submission retain their usefulness for disseminating highly-important alerts to users such as emergency services personnel. Common paging protocols include TAP , FLEX , ReFLEX , POCSAG , GOLAY, ERMES and NTT. Past paging protocols include Two-tone and 5/6-tone. In the United States, pagers typically receive signals using
2318-435: A paging system which includes one or more fixed transmitters (or in the case of response pagers and two-way pagers, one or more base stations ), as well as a number of pagers carried by mobile users. These systems can range from a restaurant system with a single low power transmitter, to a nationwide system with thousands of high-power base stations. Pagers were developed in the 1950s and 1960s, and became widely used by
2440-459: A portable receiver that would usually vibrate, flash, or beep when a table becomes free or when their meal is ready. Pagers have been popular with birdwatchers in Great Britain and Ireland since 1991, with companies Rare Bird Alert and Birdnet Information offering news of rare birds sent to pagers that they sell. Today, companies like Visiplex offer similar solutions for onsite pager systems in
2562-514: A precursor to a large-scale Israeli campaign, especially as Hezbollah contends with the chaos from the attack. Jewish-American political scientist Eliot A. Cohen wrote in The Atlantic that the attacks were "a strategic win for Israel"—beyond the Hezbollah casualties—because Hezbollah would not be able to trust electronic communications, and an organization cannot function without them. He also said
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#17329027987462684-488: A single transmitter tower. The system was manufactured by the Reevesound Company and operated by Telanswerphone. In 1960, John Francis Mitchell combined elements of Motorola 's walkie-talkie and automobile radio technologies to create the first transistorized pager, and from that time, paging technology continued to advance and pager adoption among emergency personnel was still popular as of July 2016. In 1962,
2806-422: A telephone extension and set up web portals to integrate pagers into other parts of their enterprise. A paging system alerts a pager (or group of pagers) by transmitting information over an RF channel, including an address and message information. This information is formatted using a paging protocol, such as 2-tone, 5/6-tone, GOLAY, POCSAG , FLEX , ERMES , or NTT. Two-way pagers and response pagers typically use
2928-636: A video of its fighters training to blast through the border. After the attack, the IDF said that Hamas had extensively studied the military bases and settlements near the border. The Wall Street Journal has accused Iran of being behind the attack. U.S. officials and Iran have denied this. The IDF has reported seizing over 10,000 weapons following the attack. The arsenal included RPGs, mines, sniper rifles, drones, thermobaric rockets, and other advanced weapons. According to Israeli sources, documents and maps seized from Hamas militants indicated that Hamas intended
3050-759: A warning, although Michael McCaul , Chairman of the US House Foreign Relations Committee , said that warnings were given three days before the attack. For two years, Hamas used hardwired phone lines within Gaza's tunnel network, nicknamed the " Gaza metro ", to covertly communicate, evade Israeli intelligence, and plan Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. In the months preceding the attack, Hamas publicly released videos of its militants preparing to attack Israel. A video released in December 2022 showed Hamas training to take hostages, while another video showed Hamas practicing paragliding. On 12 September, Hamas posted
3172-496: A year before the attack. The document described operational plans and targets, including the size and location of Israeli forces, and raised questions in Israel about how Hamas learned these details. The document provided a plan that included a large-scale rocket assault before an invasion, drones to knock out the surveillance cameras and automated guns that Israel has stationed along the border, and gunmen invading Israel, including with paragliders. The Times reported, "Hamas followed
3294-648: A youth center, to "kill as many people as possible", and to take hostages for use in future negotiations. The UN's Pramila Patten and Commission of Inquiry concluded in their reports that the authenticity of these alleged instruction documents claimed to have been retrieved from Hamas militants could not be substantiated. Some of the militants wore body cameras to record the acts, presumably for propaganda purposes. According to news reports, Hamas militants were taking Captagon —a highly addictive stimulant made in Syria and reportedly used by terrorist organization throughout
3416-509: Is quoted as saying; "The pager operation and the elimination of [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah were carried out despite the opposition of senior officials in the defense establishment and those responsible for them in the political echelon". Josep Borrell , the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy , questioned the legality of the attacks due to their high collateral damage among civilians, including
3538-440: Is the case with many new technologies, the functionality of the pager shifted from necessary professional use to a social tool integrated in one's personal life. During the rise of the pager, it became the subject of various forms of media, most notably in the 1990s hip-hop scene. Popular artists from the era, including Ice Cube , Method Man , and A Tribe Called Quest , began referencing newly developed mobile technologies such as
3660-446: The 7 October attacks , but more members began using them after February 2024, when Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah called on members to stop using smartphones, citing Israel's capability to infiltrate them. Hezbollah subsequently imported the pagers to Lebanon in the months before the explosion. Reuters was told that the explosives were not detected despite checks and the pagers were still being distributed immediately before
3782-548: The 7 October attacks . The attacks initiated the ongoing Israel–Hamas war . The attacks began early on 7 October with a barrage of at least 4,300 rockets launched into Israel and vehicle-transported and powered paraglider incursions into Israel. Hamas fighters breached the Gaza–Israel barrier , attacking military bases and massacring civilians in 21 communities, including Be'eri , Kfar Aza , Nir Oz , Netiv Haasara , and Alumim . According to an IDF report that revised
2024 Lebanon electronic device attacks - Misplaced Pages Continue
3904-631: The Bell System , the U.S. telephone monopoly, presented its Bellboy radio paging system at the Seattle World's Fair. Bellboy was the first commercial system for personal paging. It also marked one of the first consumer applications of the transistor (invented by Bell Labs in 1947), for which three Bell Labs inventors received a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1956. Solid-state circuitry enabled the Bellboy pager, about
4026-525: The FLEX protocol in the 900 MHz band. Commercial paging transmitters typically radiate 1000 watts of effective power , resulting in a much wider coverage area per tower than a mobile phone transmitter, which typically radiates around 0.6 watts per channel. Although 900 MHz FLEX paging networks tend to have stronger in-building coverage than mobile phone networks, commercial paging service providers will work with large institutions to install repeater equipment in
4148-635: The Gaza Strip into the Gaza Envelope of southern Israel , the first invasion of Israeli territory since the 1948 Arab–Israeli War . The attack coincided with the Jewish religious holiday Simchat Torah . Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups named the attacks Operation Al-Aqsa Flood , while in Israel they are referred to as Black Saturday or the Simchat Torah Massacre , and internationally as
4270-547: The Gaza–Israel barrier . On 29 September, Qatar , the UN, and Egypt mediated an agreement between Israeli and Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip to reopen closed crossing points and deescalate tensions; the total number of Gazans with work permits in Israel stood at 17,000. Egypt said it warned Israel days before the attack that "an explosion of the situation [was] coming, and very soon, and it would be big." Israel denied receiving such
4392-470: The Israeli intelligence operated BAC Consulting and created two other unnamed shell corporations to hide their involvement. The pagers produced for Hezbollah had batteries that integrated 3 grams (0.11 ounces) of the explosive PETN in such a way that it would have been extremely difficult to detect. Israeli officials believe that Hezbollah did in fact disassemble the pagers for inspections, and may have even scanned them with x-rays, yet were unable to detect
4514-503: The Lebanese Health Ministry , the vast majority of those who came to emergency rooms were in civilian clothing and their Hezbollah affiliation was unclear. Facial and eye injuries were the most common effect of the explosions and, according to Tracy Chamoun , the pagers emitted a sound to encourage users to pick the devices up and lift them to their heads. Other reports say that the device vibrated and showed an error message on
4636-626: The Maoist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), confirmed their participation in the operation through their military spokesman Abu Khaled , saying it had lost three fighters in combat with the IDF. The PFLP (a Palestinian Marxist–Leninist / Secular Nationalist political party) and the Lions' Den group (a nonpartisan militant group based in the West Bank ) voiced support for
4758-1181: The ReFLEX protocol. Modern paging systems typically use multiple base transmitters to modulate the same signal on the same RF channel, a design approach called simulcast . This type of design enables pagers to select the strongest signal from several candidate transmitters using FM capture , thereby improving overall system performance. Simulcast systems often use satellite to distribute identical information to multiple transmitters and GPS at each transmitter to precisely time its modulation relative to other transmitters. The coverage overlap, combined with use of satellite communications, can make paging systems more reliable than terrestrial based cellular networks in some cases, including during natural and human-made disaster. This resilience has led public safety agencies to adopt pagers over cellular and other commercial services for critical messaging. Pagers themselves vary from very cheap and simple beepers, to more complex personal communications equipment, falling into eight main categories. Pagers have certain privacy advantages and disadvantages compared with cellular phones. Since
4880-651: The security forces . 364 civilians were killed and many more wounded while attending the Nova music festival . At least 14 Israeli civilians were killed by the IDF's use of the Hannibal Directive . About 250 Israeli civilians and soldiers were taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip , alive or dead, and including 30 children, with the stated goal to force Israel to exchange them for imprisoned Palestinians , including women and children. Dozens of cases of rape and sexual assault reportedly occurred, but Hamas officials denied
5002-734: The 1980s through the late 1990s and early 2000s. Later in the 21st century, the widespread availability of cellphones and smartphones with text messaging capability has greatly diminished the pager industry. Nevertheless, pagers continue to be used by some emergency services and public safety personnel , because modern pager systems' coverage overlap, combined with use of satellite communications , can make paging systems more reliable than terrestrial based cellular networks in some cases, including during natural and human-made disasters . This resilience has led public safety agencies to adopt pagers over cellular and other commercial services for critical messaging. The first telephone pager system
2024 Lebanon electronic device attacks - Misplaced Pages Continue
5124-795: The 1990s to conduct commerce, using them to arrange meetings with buyers. Associate superintendent for Miami-Dade County Public Schools in Florida Gul James Fleming once called them "the most dominant symbol of the drug trade" and schools have previously forbidden students from carrying them because of the ease with which they could be "used to arrange illegal drug sales." 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel Israeli defensive failure [REDACTED] Palestinian Joint Operations Room [REDACTED] Israel Defense Forces Per Israel: Israel Defense Forces On 7 October 2023, Hamas and several other Palestinian nationalist militant groups launched coordinated armed incursions from
5246-426: The 1990s. While Motorola announced the end of its new pager manufacturing in 2001, pagers remained in use in large hospital complexes. First responders in rural areas with inadequate cellular coverage are often issued pagers . The 2005 London bombings resulted in overload of TETRA systems by the emergency services and showed that pagers, with their absence of necessity to transmit an acknowledgement before showing
5368-415: The 7 October attack, alongside those at the communities of Netiv HaAsara , Be'eri, Kfar Aza, Nir Oz, and Holit . At 6:30 a.m., around sunrise, rockets were noticed in the sky. Around 7:00 a.m., a siren warned of an incoming rocket attack, prompting festival-goers to flee. Subsequently, armed militants, dressed in military attire and using motorcycles, trucks and powered paragliders, surrounded
5490-547: The AR924 model by the Taiwanese company Gold Apollo , which met Hezbollah's requirements for devices capable of operating for months without needing to be recharged, and could be recharged with a cable. This model is not available for sale in Taiwan nor the United States, and the ministry's figures recorded no direct exports of any Gold Apollo-manufactured pagers from Taiwan to Lebanon during
5612-685: The Gaza Strip. Around 50 civilians were killed in the Kfar Aza massacre , 108 in the Be'eri massacre , and 15 people in the Netiv HaAsara massacre . Militants killed 16 or 17 Thai and Nepalese employees during the Kibbutz Alumim massacre . Other militants carried out an amphibious landing in Zikim . Palestinian sources claim that the local Israeli army base was stormed. The IDF said it had killed two attackers on
5734-576: The Hamas-led attack, 364 civilians were killed and many more wounded at the Supernova Sukkot Gathering, an open-air music festival celebrating the Jewish holiday of Sukkot near kibbutz Re'im . At least 40 hostages were also taken. This mass killing had the largest number of casualties out of a number of massacres targeting Israeli civilians in communities adjacent to Gaza that were part of
5856-517: The IC-V82. The company said on 19 September that it was conducting an investigation and, two days later, announced that it was "highly unlikely" that the radios were theirs. A sales executive at Icom's US subsidiary said the transceivers involved appeared to be "knockoff" (counterfeit) products. Other electronic devices, such as fingerprint biometric devices , were also reported to have exploded, though it remains unclear whether those devices caught fire from other explosions or detonated on their own. In
5978-410: The IDF is determined to allow displaced citizens in northern Israel to safely return to their homes. On 22 September 2024, Israeli President Isaac Herzog denied any Israeli involvement in the explosions, though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the same day said, "If Hezbollah has not understood the message, I promise you, it will understand the message." Netanyahu reportedly acknowledged for
6100-465: The IDF two days to wrest back full control of it. While the exact number of Israelis killed is unknown, as of 15 October 2023, 52 were listed as dead and another 20 or more were missing. On the morning of the attack, around 70 Hamas militants carried out a massacre at Be'eri, an Israeli kibbutz near the Gaza Strip. At least 130 people were killed in the attack, including women (such as peace activist Vivian Silver ), children, and infants, claiming
6222-677: The Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel was shifting its focus from Gaza to the northern border. Israel's domestic security agency, Shin Bet , announced it had thwarted a Hezbollah plot to assassinate a former senior defense official using an explosive device, and The Jerusalem Post speculated that the pager explosions may have been in retaliation. While popular in the late twentieth century, pagers have since largely been replaced by cell phones, except in hospitals. Some Hezbollah members had used pagers for years before
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#17329027987466344-836: The Lebanese government. The incident was described as Hezbollah's biggest security breach since the start of the Israel–Hezbollah conflict in October 2023. The first wave of explosions targeted pagers, and occurred on 17 September, around 15:30 EEST , killing at least 12 people, including two Hezbollah members and two children, and wounding more than 2,750, including Iran 's ambassador to Lebanon. The second wave targeted Icom walkie-talkies and occurred on 18 September, killing at least 30 people and injuring over 750. The explosions occurred mostly in Lebanon, as well as in several locations in Syria. The 150 hospitals across Lebanon that received victims of
6466-574: The Middle East told NBC reporters that Israel was behind the attack on 18 September. The New York Times later reported that while Israel had continued to deny any role in the attack, twelve current and former defense and intelligence officials, who were briefed on the attack, said Israel was behind it. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) initially declined to comment when approached by the Associated Press . Israeli Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi held
6588-525: The Middle East—during the attacks. The morning of the attack, an Israeli military spokesman said that the militants from Gaza had entered Israel through at least seven locations and invaded four small rural Israeli communities, the border city of Sderot, and two military bases from both land and sea. Israeli media reported that seven communities came under Hamas control, including Nahal Oz , Kfar Aza , Magen , Be'eri , and Sufa . The Erez Crossing
6710-611: The UK National Health Service was thought to have been using over 10% of the remaining pagers in the world (130,000), with an annual cost of £6.6 million. Matt Hancock , (then) Secretary of State for Health and Social Care , announced in February 2019 that the 130,000 pagers still in use were to be phased out. NHSX announced plans in May 2020 to replace pagers and bleepers with "more modern communication tools," accelerated by
6832-498: The United States, pagers using the commercial FM band receive a subcarrier, called the Subsidiary Communications Authority , of a broadcast station. On-site paging systems in hospitals, unlike wide area paging systems, are local area services. Hospitals commonly use on-site paging for communication with staff and increasingly for contacting waiting patients when their appointment is due. These offer waiting patients
6954-693: The West Bank, had the initial attack been more successful. The National Resistance Center of Ukraine alleged that the Russian Wagner Group trained Hamas militants ahead of the attack, specifically on attack methods and using drones to drop explosives. The National Resistance Center, citing intelligence from Belarusian partisans , said that Wagner mercenaries provided Hamas with drones during exercises in Africa . According to The New York Times , Israeli officials had obtained detailed attack plans more than
7076-582: The activities of the Hamas military leadership. Simulated exercises of Hamas attacks found the Gaza division's response lacking. Cultural conformity was fostered among officers and dissent discouraged. Officers often silenced subordinates to maintain their positions, contributing to a toxic atmosphere where questioning higher-ups' decisions about Hamas was met with apprehension, resulting in most junior officers giving up. At around 6:30 a.m. Israel Summer Time (UTC+3) on Saturday, 7 October 2023, Hamas announced
7198-542: The aftermath of the second wave of explosions, a group of men attacked United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon vehicles in Tyre , before Lebanese armed forces intervened. As of 22 September 2024, the death toll from the attacks was 42, including at least 12 civilian deaths. More than 3,500 people were injured. On 6 November 2024, the Lebanese Labour Minister reported that over 4,000 civilians were injured from
7320-502: The assault, saying, "I utterly refute that the scenario is imaginary". An Israeli colonel ignored her concerns. According to Haaretz , Israel's domestic intelligence agency, Shin Bet , and IDF military commanders discussed a possible threat to the Nova music festival near kibbutz Re'im just hours before the attack, but the festival's organizers were not warned. According to a BBC investigation, surveillance reports suggested that Hamas
7442-649: The attack, which saw chaotic scenes. Hospitals in southern Lebanon, the Beqaa Valley, and Beirut's southern suburbs were overwhelmed with patients, many suffering from injuries to the face, hands and waist. In response, the Ministry of Health advised individuals with pagers to dispose of them and instructed hospitals to remain on "high alert". It also called on health workers to report to work and asked them not to use wireless devices. The state-run National News Agency appealed for blood donations. Ambulance crews were deployed from
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#17329027987467564-421: The attack. In 2015, Mossad began planting booby-trapped walkie-talkies in Lebanon, which secretly allowed Israel to monitor Hezbollah communications while holding the option to detonate them. For nine years, Israel limited its use of these devices to surveillance. However, in 2023, a new tactic emerged with the introduction of explosive-laden pagers which Hezbollah unknowingly purchased. The exploding pagers were
7686-462: The attackers. Approximately 90 militants infiltrated kibbutz Ein HaShlosha , killing four civilians, looting, shooting, and burning houses. An 80-year-old Argentinian-Israeli woman died after her home was set on fire and she was unable to escape. A standoff between the attackers and the residents' security team lasted six hours. The leader of the security team, who was in his sixties, was killed in
7808-521: The attacks violated the principle of distinction (including the prohibition against using booby traps ) and the principle of proportionality . Pager A pager , also known as a beeper or bleeper , is a wireless telecommunications device that receives and displays alphanumeric or voice messages. One-way pagers can only receive messages, while response pagers and two-way pagers can also acknowledge, reply to, and originate messages using an internal transmitter. Pagers operate as part of
7930-579: The attacks. Images and videos appeared to show heavily armed and masked militants dressed in black fatigues riding pickup trucks and opening fire in Sderot, killing dozens of Israeli civilians and soldiers and setting homes on fire. Other videos appeared to show Israelis taken prisoner, a burning Israeli tank, and militants driving Israeli military vehicles. Israeli first responders reportedly recovered documents from killed militants' bodies with instructions to attack civilians, including elementary schools and
8052-516: The attacks. At least 12 people were killed in the first wave of attacks, including civilians such as two health workers, a 9-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy. The adult son of Ali Ammar , a Hezbollah member of Parliament was killed; Prime Minister Najib Mikati visited southern Beirut to pay his respects. More than 2,750 people were wounded. In the second wave on 18 September, at least 30 people were killed and 750 others were injured. One eye doctor at Mount Lebanon University Hospital reported that
8174-427: The beach and destroyed four vessels, including two rubber boats. Militants also attacked a military base outside Nahal Oz , leaving 66 soldiers dead and taking seven hostage. An IDF fire investigation found that the militants had "ignited substances... that contain toxic gasses which can cause suffocation within minutes, or even less" both at the base and in civilian locations. Table Footnotes: As part of
8296-415: The blueprint with shocking precision." According to The Times , the document was widely circulated among Israeli military and intelligence leadership, who largely dismissed the plan as beyond Hamas's capabilities, though it was unclear whether the political leadership was informed. In July 2023, a member of the Israeli signals intelligence unit alerted her superiors that Hamas was conducting preparations for
8418-410: The border of Gaza . The event drew around 100 participants. Hamas militants attacked the festival, killing 17 Israelis . Some were fatally shot at the festival site, while others were killed as they attempted to escape to nearby kibbutzim. Most survivors hid under small bushes until Israel Defense Forces rescued them a few hours later. At 10 a.m., less than five hours after the attacks began, fighting
8540-450: The border. Israel said it found explosives hidden in a shipment and halted all exports from Gaza; Hamas denied Israel's claims. Reuters quoted Palestinians who said that the several-day ban affected thousands of families. In response to the ban, Hamas put its forces on high alert and conducted military exercises with other groups, including openly practicing storming Israeli settlements. Hamas also allowed Palestinians to resume protests at
8662-590: The course of 2023, there were clashes between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in May 2023, increased settler attacks had displaced hundreds of Palestinians, and clashes around the Al-Aqsa Mosque , a contested holy site in Jerusalem. Tensions between Israel and Hamas rose in September 2023, and The Washington Post wrote that the two were "on the brink of war". On 13 September, five Palestinians were killed at
8784-411: The day and moment of our choosing and we can do it at the press of a button." The Economist suggested that the pager-bombs, aimed at disrupting Hezbollah's command and communications structure, could be a precursor to an Israeli invasion, or they could be the full extent of Israel's operation. Lina Khatib of Chatham House said the breach could paralyze Hezbollah's military and instill fear, making
8906-487: The deaths of children. Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert , the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon , also raised concerns over the attack's legality. Belgian deputy prime minister Petra De Sutter went further, calling it a " terror attack ". Former CIA director Leon Panetta also described the attack as "a form of terrorism". The legal questions that were examined attempted to determine whether
9028-419: The devices, integrated the explosive PETN into the devices, and sold them to Hezbollah through a shell company . International officials and scholars of the law of war have debated the legality of the attacks, with critics suggesting they might constitute war crimes or acts of terrorism. Responding to the attacks, Nasrallah described the explosions as a "major blow" and labeled them an act of war , possibly
9150-526: The devices. BAC Consulting CEO Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono acknowledged working with Gold Apollo, but stated "I don't make the pagers. I am just the intermediate [sic]." Hungarian government spokesperson Zoltán Kovács said BAC Consulting "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." The New York Times reported that
9272-482: The estimate on the number of attackers, 6,000 Gazans breached the border in 119 locations into Israel, including 3,800 from the " elite Nukhba forces " and 2,200 civilians and other militants. Additionally, the IDF report estimated 1,000 Gazans fired rockets from the Gaza Strip, bringing the total number of participants on Hamas's side to 7,000. In total, 1,139 people were killed: 695 Israeli civilians (including 38 children), 71 foreign nationals, and 373 members of
9394-503: The event that service is not available in needed areas of the subscribing institution's buildings. This is especially critical in hospital settings where emergency staff must be able to reliably receive pages to respond to patient needs. Unlike mobile phones, most one-way pagers do not display any information about whether a signal is being received or about the strength of the received signal. Since one-way pagers do not contain transmitters, one-way paging networks have no way to track whether
9516-803: The exploded pagers were those distributed to lower ranking members while Hezbollah's leaders did not use the model. Mojtaba Amani , Iran's ambassador to Lebanon, was wounded; according to The New York Times , quoting unnamed members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), he lost one eye and suffered severe injuries in the other. Two staff of the Iranian embassy were also injured. The Iranian Ministry of Health reported that they performed 1500 eye and limb surgeries for Hezbollah operatives in Iran, and that Iran sent 12 doctors to Lebanon to assist in treatment. Lebanese health minister Firas Abiad said
9638-401: The explosions experienced chaotic scenes. In February 2024, Hezbollah's secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah instructed the group's members to use pagers instead of cell phones, claiming Israel had infiltrated their cell phone network. Hezbollah then purchased Gold Apollo AR-924 pagers about five months before the explosions. The Israeli intelligence agency ( Mossad ) had secretly manufactured
9760-479: The explosions served as a "morale boost" for Israel after the killings of Hersh Goldberg-Polin and five other hostages three weeks prior. The Washington Post later reported that the attack severely weakened Hezbollah's leadership and encouraged Israel to target and kill its top leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Within days, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps suspended use of all types of communication devices and undertook an inspection of all their devices. About
9882-505: The explosive materials. Sky News quoted Lebanese security officials saying that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 devices. Israeli agencies have previously carried out operations involving explosive communication devices—notably the assassination of Hamas operative Yahya Ayyash in 1996. On 17 September 2024 at around 15:30 EEST, many pagers across Lebanon and Syria unexpectedly exploded in an apparently coordinated attack on Hezbollah members, many of whom were seriously wounded. According to
10004-401: The festival grounds and indiscriminately fired on people attempting to escape. Attendees seeking refuge nearby, in bomb shelters, bushes, and orchards, were killed while in hiding. Those who reached the road and parking lot were trapped in a traffic jam as militants fired at vehicles. The militants executed some wounded people at point-blank range as they crouched on the ground. The details of
10126-403: The firefight. A 63-year-old grandmother was also among those killed in the attack. A 39-year-old Israeli-Chilean woman was shot eight times. Thirty survivors were discovered in the kibbutz three days after the massacre, 14 of whom were Thai nationals. Psyduck was a small trance music festival that took place in the open fields near kibbutz Nir Oz , about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from
10248-493: The first time that Israel was behind the pager and walkie-talkie attacks during a cabinet meeting on 10 November. He stated that the operations "were carried out despite the opposition of senior officials in the defense establishment and those responsible for them in the political echelon." On 10 November 2024 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted that Israel was responsible for the attacks. In an apparent dig against recently fired defense minister Yoav Gallant, Netanyahu
10370-461: The group more cautious with its communications. Another theory is that Israel acted preemptively to prevent Hezbollah from discovering the vulnerability. Lebanese journalist Kim Ghattas , who also contributes to The Atlantic , spoke to CNN, suggesting the incident could be an effort "to cow Hezbollah into submission, and make clear that an increase of their attacks against Israel will be met with even further violence." She noted that it might act as
10492-482: The hostages' whereabouts and conditions are not publicly known. The massacre at the festival has been described as the largest terror attack in Israel's history and the worst Israeli civilian massacre ever. During the Hamas-led attack, around 70 Hamas militants attacked Kfar Aza, a kibbutz about 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) from the border with the Gaza Strip, massacring residents and abducting several hostages . The kibbutz had more than 700 residents, and it took
10614-567: The house but one. A squad of Hamas militants that arrived in a van attacked the moshav of Yakhini . There were seven casualties in the moshav, including a border police officer. An IDF major in the Maglan unit was also injured. The community's security coordinator was on holiday in Thailand at the time and remotely directed the moshav's 18-person protection team's response. Yamam and Sayeret Matkal IDF units eventually arrived and killed all
10736-487: The initial detonations, intensifying the resulting chaos. Witnesses reported seeing multiple individuals with bleeding wounds in the aftermath of the blasts. In one instance, an explosion occurred inside the trouser pockets of a man standing outside a shop. Photos and videos circulating on social media and local media from Beirut's southern suburbs showed individuals lying on the ground with injuries on their hands or near their pockets. Around 150 hospitals received victims of
10858-557: The initial explosions. Lebanese Civil Defense said it responded to fires in at least 71 homes and shops, including a lithium battery store in Majdel Selm , as well as 15 cars and numerous motorcycles. These fires were triggered by explosions in various locations across Nabatieh Governorate . One compromised device was discovered inside an ambulance outside the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) and neutralized in
10980-721: The injured concurred that the level of injuries was greater than that after the port explosion. Schools were closed in Lebanon on 18 September, and the Lebanese army announced it was conducting controlled blasts in various areas to destroy any suspicious devices. On 19 September, the Lebanese Civil Aviation Authority imposed an indefinite ban on carrying pagers and walkie-talkies inside checked luggage and carry-on items on flights at Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport . Air France and Lufthansa suspended flights to Beirut (along with Tel Aviv and Tehran ), citing
11102-545: The involvement of their fighters. The governments of 44 countries denounced the attack and described it as terrorism , while some Arab and Muslim-majority countries blamed Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories as the root cause of the attack. Hamas said its attack was in response to the continued Israeli occupation, the blockade of the Gaza Strip , the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements , rising Israeli settler violence , and recent escalations. The day
11224-542: The last paging provider was closed in November 2021. Many paging network operators now allow numeric and textual pages to be submitted to the paging networks via email. A significant convenience for users given the widespread adoption of email, and commonalities in delivery assurances . This can result in pager messages being delayed or lost. Older forms of message submission using the Telelocator Alphanumeric Protocol involve modem connections directly to
11346-560: The launch of 4,300 projectiles from Gaza, killing twelve and injuring dozens, most of them from the Bedouin community. Explosions were reported in areas surrounding Gaza and in the Sharon Plain , including Gedera , Herzliyya , Beersheba Tel Aviv , and Ashkelon. Air raid sirens were activated in Beer Sheva , Jerusalem , Rehovot , Rishon Lezion , and Palmachim Airbase . Hamas issued
11468-480: The lives of 10% of the community's residents. Dozens of homes were also burned down. Several newspapers called the massacre an act of terrorism; some compared the brutality of the atrocities to that of ISIS . Hostages were taken, leading to a standoff with the IDF. According to survivors, there were also deaths from friendly fire; an Israeli tank fired on a house known to contain around 40 Hamas fighters and 14 hostages, among them two children, killing all hostages in
11590-518: The medical, education and commercial sectors. By early 2002, pager usage was rapidly declining in places like North America. The U.S. paging industry generated $ 2.1 billion in revenue in 2008, down from $ 6.2 billion in 2003. In Canada, 161,500 Canadians paid $ 18.5 million for pager service in 2013. Telus , one of the three major mobile carriers, announced the end to its Canadian pager service as of 31 March 2015, but rivals Bell , Rogers and PageNet intend to continue service. In 2017
11712-425: The message, and the related capability to operate on very low signal levels, are not completely outclassed by their successors. Volunteer firefighters, EMS paramedics and rescue squad members usually carry pagers to alert them of emergency call outs for their department. These pagers receive a special tone from a fire department radio frequency. Restaurant pagers remain in wide use since the 2000s. Customers are given
11834-522: The nationwide service area. On September 17, 2024, a massive attack against Hezbollah members in Lebanon and Syria was allegedly committed by Israel, who simultaneously detonated pagers that they were using. Lebanese Health authorities confirmed at least nine deaths and over 3,000 injuries as a result of the explosions. In February 2024, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had told the group's members to use pagers instead of cell phones, claiming that Israel had infiltrated their mobile phone network. As
11956-494: The northern cities of Tripoli and Al-Qalamoun to help in Beirut. The attack came just a day after the Biden administration 's special envoy Amos Hochstein visited Israel and warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against provoking a major escalation in Lebanon. Just before the blasts, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant told the US defense secretary Lloyd Austin that an operation
12078-533: The onset of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, Hezbollah joined the conflict, citing solidarity with Palestinians. This quickly escalated into regular cross-border military exchanges between Hezbollah and Israel, impacting northern Israel , southern Lebanon and the Golan Heights . Hezbollah said it aimed to pressure Israel by forcing it to fight on two fronts. Hezbollah has offered an immediate ceasefire should
12200-416: The operation and declared maximum alertness and general mobilization among their troops. Nine individuals employed by UNRWA were accused by Israel of participation, and after a months-long internal investigation, were fired for possible involvement. Deif said more than 5,000 rockets had been fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel in a span of 20 minutes at the start of the operation. Israeli sources reported
12322-400: The operation, that they had drawn the line, and that it was to end "the last occupation on Earth". Shortly thereafter, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh made a similar announcement in a televised address. In addition to Hamas, several Palestinian militant groups voiced support for the operation and participated in it to some extent. The National Resistance Brigades , the armed wing of
12444-838: The opportunity to leave the waiting area, but still be contacted. Paging systems are operated by commercial carriers, often as a subscription service and they are also operated directly by end users as private systems. Commercial carrier systems tend to cover a larger geographical area than private systems, while private systems tend to cover their limited area more thoroughly and deliver messages faster than commercial systems. In all systems, clients send messages to pagers, an activity commonly referred to as paging . System operators often assign unique phone numbers or email addresses to pagers (and pre-defined groups of pagers), enabling clients to page by telephone call, e-mail and SMS. Paging systems also support various types of direct connection protocols, which sacrifice global addressing and accessibility for
12566-514: The pager. A Tribe Called Quest's single "Skypager" directly speaks of the importance of such a wireless communication device, with group member Q-Tip stating that the Skypager "serves an important communicative function for a young professional with a full calendar". Three 6 Mafia 's "2-Way Freak," Sir Mix-A-Lot 's " Beepers " and " Bug a Boo " from Destiny's Child also make reference to pagers. Illicit drug dealers used pagers to great effect during
12688-595: The pagers were made in Taiwan. German broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) visited BAC's official address in Budapest but found only a sheet of paper on the door with the company name; the doorbell was not answered. DW cited the New York Times , which reported that BAC and at least two other shell companies were part of an Israeli front, intended to obscure links to Israeli intelligence officers. The CEO of BAC Consultancy said they were intermediaries, not involved in manufacturing
12810-621: The pressure placed on the service by the COVID-19 pandemic in England . In August 2020, a new procurement framework for clinical communications was launched which was intended to phase out pagers by the end of 2021, replacing them with "dedicated clinical-facing communication and tasks management tools" from 25 approved suppliers. In Japan, more than ten million pagers were active in 1996. On 1 October 2019, Japan's last paging service provider shut down radio signals and terminated its service. In Russia,
12932-485: The same day, a massacre unfolded at an outdoor music festival near Re'im , resulting in at least 360 dead and many others missing. Witnesses recounted militants on motorcycles opening fire on fleeing participants, who were already dispersing due to rocket fire that had wounded some attendees; some were also taken hostage. Militants killed civilians at Nir Oz , Be'eri, and Netiv HaAsara , where they took hostages and set fire to homes, as well as in kibbutzim around
13054-662: The same period. Indirect exports via third parties could not be ruled out. Gold Apollo denied making the pagers, explaining that they were made and sold by Budapest -based BAC Consulting Kft., which had a licensing agreement with Gold Apollo for the previous three years. Gold Apollo founder Hsu Ching-Kuang said BAC's payments were "very strange", arriving via the Middle East. Taiwanese police opened an investigation into Gold Apollo's involvement, searched four locations in Taipei and New Taipei City , and questioned two individuals. Both Economic Minister J.W. Kuo and Premier Cho Jung-tai denied
13176-520: The same time—a precursor of DTMF . The ReFLEX protocol was developed in the mid-1990s. As prices for mobile phones declined, small form factor phones like the Motorola StarTAC and the Nokia Series 40 line came on the market, cellular connectivity expanded, and digital phones adopted text messaging , most pager customers outside of specialist fields migrated to mobile phones toward the end of
13298-406: The scale of the attack was greater than the 2020 Beirut explosion , which was one of the largest artificial non-nuclear explosions ever recorded. The head of Lebanon's disaster response committee also compared the pager attack with the Beirut explosion, in terms of the sudden influx of casualties and the strain imposed on Lebanon's emergency response system. Many Lebanese doctors who were treating
13420-774: The screen, and only detonated when the user pressed a button to clear the error, increasing the chance that the operator of the device would be holding it. The explosions occurred in several areas where Hezbollah has a strong presence, including its stronghold of Dahieh in Beirut ; southern Lebanon ; and the Beqaa Valley near the Syrian border, where explosions were reported in the towns of Aali en Nahri and Riyaq . In Syria, explosions of pagers were also reported in Damascus and its vicinity. Blasts reportedly continued for up to 30 minutes after
13542-436: The security situation caused by the attacks. CNN suggested that the operation was likely intended to instill paranoia among Hezbollah members, undermine their recruitment efforts, and weaken confidence in Hezbollah's leadership and its ability to protect its operations and personnel. John Miller , CNN's Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst, stated the message for Hezbollah was: "We can reach you anywhere, anytime, at
13664-524: The size of a small TV remote device, to fit into a customer's pocket or purse, quite a feat at that time. The Bellboy was a terminal that notified the user when someone was trying to call them. When the person received an audible signal (a buzz) on the pager, the user found a telephone and called the service center, which informed the user of the caller's message. In the mid-1980s, tone and voice radio paging became popular among emergency responders and professionals. Tone and voice pagers were activated either by
13786-654: The socket and facial lacerations. Health Minister Firass Abiad said the vast majority of those being treated in emergency rooms were in civilian clothing and their Hezbollah affiliation was unclear. He added the casualties included elderly people as well as young children. According to the Health Ministry, healthcare workers were also injured and it advised all healthcare workers to discard their pagers. On 26 September, Abdallah Bou Habib , Lebanon's Foreign Minister, confirmed that most of those carrying pagers were not fighters, rather civilians like administrators. Qassim Qassir,
13908-508: The start of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. Qassam commander Mohammed Deif gave a speech mentioning Israel's 16-year blockade of Gaza , Israeli incursions in West Bank cities, violence at Al-Aqsa mosque, Israeli settler violence with the army's support, the confiscation of property and demolition of homes, arbitrarily detaining Palestinians for years until "they wither from cancer and disease", Israel's neglect for international law, American-Western support, and international silence. He then described
14030-405: Was executed using trucks, pickup trucks , motorcycles, bulldozers, speedboats, and powered paragliders . The Sderot police station was reported to have come under Hamas control, with militants killing 30 Israelis, including policemen and civilians. Early in the attack they deliberately destroyed the computer systems at the police station. This disabled communication and delayed the response to
14152-622: Was labeled the bloodiest in Israel's history and the "deadliest for Jews since the Holocaust " by many figures and media outlets in the West, including US president Joe Biden . Some have called the attack a genocidal massacre against Israelis. Israel has occupied the Palestinian territories , including the Gaza Strip, since the Six-Day War in 1967. The Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ), are
14274-481: Was patented in 1949 by Alfred J. Gross . Intended for the use of physicians, there was initial resistance to the idea of being permanently on-call, according to Gross. One of the first practical paging services was launched in 1950 for physicians in the New York City area. Physicians paid US$ 12 per month and carried a 200-gram (7 oz) pager that would receive phone messages within 40 kilometres (25 mi) of
14396-480: Was planned in Lebanon. At around 17:00 EEST on 18 September, about 24 hours after the initial attack, a second wave of explosions occurred, targeting handheld radios. Explosions were reported in Beirut, the Bekaa Valley, and southern Lebanon. The explosions also caused fires in at least two homes. Other explosions occurred at a funeral held in Beirut for three Hezbollah members and a child who had been killed by
14518-468: Was planning a significant operation against Israel, but senior IDF officers repeatedly ignored the warnings. A Ha'aretz investigation found that incompetence in the IDF's higher ranks, including refusal to acknowledge Hamas's preparations for the attacks, was a major cause of the October attacks. The IDF had reduced funding and manpower dedicated to observing Hamas, focusing primarily on rocket sites and ignoring Hamas training and troop movements as well as
14640-455: Was reported at Re'im military base, headquarters of the Gaza Division . It was later reported that Hamas took control of the base and took several Israeli soldiers captive before the IDF regained control later in the day. The base was reportedly the location of IDF drone and surveillance operations. Hamas reportedly posted video of dead Israeli soldiers it had killed at the base. Nir Am
14762-424: Was reported to have come under Hamas control, enabling militants to enter Israel from Gaza. Israeli Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai said there were 21 active high-confrontation locations in southern Israel. The New York Times reported that an Israeli intelligence document prepared weeks after the attack found that Hamas had breached the border fence in over 30 separate locations. Starting at 6.30 a.m.
14884-580: Was useful for times when the pager was off or out of the coverage area, as it would know what pages were sent to the subscriber even if the subscriber never actually received the page. Other radio bands used for pagers include the 400 MHz band, the VHF band and the FM commercial broadcast band (88–108&MHz). Other paging protocols used in the VHF, 400 MHz UHF and 900 MHz bands include POCSAG and ERMES. In Canada and
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