Nine people, including a child, have been killed after handheld pagers used by members of the armed group Hezbollah to communicate exploded across Lebanon, according to the country’s health minister. Since the incident, other handheld devices have exploded across Lebanon.
Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon was among 2,800 other people who were wounded by the simultaneous blasts in Beirut and several other regions.
Hezbollah, backed by Iran, stated that the pagers belonged to “employees of various Hezbollah units and institutions” and confirmed the deaths of eight fighters.
The group blamed Israel for what it called “this criminal aggression” and vowed to seek “just retribution”. The Israeli military declined to comment.
The question on everyone’s minds is if anyone anywhere worldwide can be targeted by blowing up their handheld devices.
It’s a known fact that Israel has the best spyware technology that it often sells to security agencies and military. During the ongoing genocide in Occupied Palestine, Israeli Occupation Forces often use mobile phone data supplied by genocide-supporting countries such as the United States and Britain to target so-called “Hamas terrorists” but most often unarmed civilians.
Israel’s ability to remotely detonate pagers poses a global risk, as many critical facilities, such as hospitals, still rely on pagers for emergency communication. Pagers operate on a separate frequency from mobile phones, ensuring that they can be used to page doctors and emergency responders even when mobile networks. Reliance on pagers is common practice in emergency services work are down.
In Lebanon, over a thousand pagers were simultaneously hacked, all of which were Motorola devices. This raises concerns about the potential for a country’s emergency services to be compromised, either by a foreign entity like Israel or through the sale of technology to agencies supported by Israel to destabilize a country. This situation poses a threat to anyone who could be targeted.
“How do we know if this issue is limited to Motorola? Mobile phones use lithium-ion batteries that can overheat and explode. Phones have circuits that can stop this from happening. For example, the iPhone shuts down when it overheats. If Israel cannot only disable the safety mechanism but also cause the battery to overheat – this is a global problem.
Why Israel? No one else has the technology or has a grouse with Hezbollah. Or pretty much with anyone else. Zionist supremacy is ingrained into their nature and it’s a known fact that Israel routinely assassinates foreign citizens. Much recently the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran by Israeli terrorism.
As for Hezbollah or anyone else, threats of occupation and invasion ensure that this is a mere stumbling block. It will not stop any coordinated resistance to free Palestine or defence against Israeli terrorist aggression. More importantly, it would have the opposite effect to coordinate against Israel. Israeli defence is weak, unlike the wars of decades to boast about the Iron Dome defence system. But the rules of engagement have changed. Recent drones can get through Israeli defences and attack critical military targets. Hezbollah (and Iran) have yet to launch large-scale attacks against Israel which would not only decimate its defences, it will also destroy Israel’s fledging military. Israeli military commanders know about this.
For the rest of us – the world has become much different in the last few days. Airline travel will now be extra problematic. Up till last week, one had to worry if someone had a spoon or a fork in their luggage. Now they need to worry if their mobile phones will explode mid-air. Your children’s screen time could be their last. Israel has turned their terrorism into a global concern.
Free Palestine.
Azizi Khan lives in Melbourne, Australia building a world class digital bank. A banking and finance specialist he has spend more than two decades in Australia.
With a background in regulatory reporting, AML/KYC and financial technology, Azizi regularly provide consulting services to financial institutions and government agencies.
With a keen interest in digital technologies, startups and digital media, Azizi founded New Malaysia Herald in Melbourne Australia to provide a new all encompassing global Malaysian news.
Azizi is a Senior Member of Financial Services Institute of Australia (FINSIA).
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