As Hezbollah and Lebanon are still reeling from a coordinated wave of pager explosions on Tuesday that killed at least 12 people and injured thousands, another barrage began Wednesday — this time in the form of exploding two-way radios. Footage of the explosions, which were not independently confirmed by WIRED, appear to show even larger explosions than those emanating from the booby-trapped pagers.
Lebanon’s official news agency also reported the explosion of home solar systems less than two hours after the radio blasts began on Wednesday, according to the Associated PressDetails of the alleged attacks on solar equipment were still developing at the time of publication.
The walkie-talkie explosions appear to have been orchestrated in the same way as Tuesday’s attack, which was likely carried out by intercepting new pagers at some point along their journey through the supply chain and modifying them to add explosive material. Hezbollah is said to have recently expanded its use of pagers in an attempt to secure communications after the group feared Israeli intelligence had infiltrated other channels. Reuters reported on Wednesday that Hezbollah purchased the walkie talkies about five months ago as part of the same initiative that led the group to buy the pagers.
In a statement following Wednesday’s explosions, the Lebanese Ministry of Health saying More than 300 people were injured and nine people died, and incidents were reported in several regions of the country. The Lebanese Red Cross saying More than 30 ambulances were involved in treating the injured.
While details of Wednesday’s attack are not yet known, the perpetrator of Tuesday’s pager attack is believed to be Israel. Fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah has escalated over the past year since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel. On Tuesday, Hezbollah blamed Israel for the “criminal aggression that also targeted civilians.”
“I am astonished by the sophistication of this operation,” says Jake Williams, vice president of research and development at Hunter Strategy, who previously worked for the US National Security Agency. “The scale of this supply chain attack is unprecedented. It is hard to imagine what technology Hezbollah could consider ‘safe’ at this point.”
Photos and videos posted on social media on Wednesday appear to show portable radios, or walkie-talkies, in various states of destruction. In many of the images, the devices, which are larger and bulkier than smartphones, had One side of the casing was removedMiddle East experts, citing local media reports, noted that cars, scootersand yet buildings They appear to have been damaged by tampered devices.
“From what we’re seeing, including images circulating on social media, the devices that are exploding are handheld radios, possibly an Icom model,” said Michael Horowitz, head of intelligence at risk management firm Le Beck International.
Wednesday’s second round of explosions indicates that whoever carried out the sabotage and attacks likely had deep access to and knowledge of Hezbollah’s infrastructure and operations. “This demonstrates even deeper penetration that may have relied on multiple fronts and multiple vectors (different electronic devices and suppliers),” Horowitz says. “This is unprecedented.”