Lebanon Hezbollah pager attacks – full video and analysis.

An attack reminiscent of Stuxnet

In an attack reminiscent of the 2010 Stuxnet event, thousands of pagers (aka beepers) exploded simultaneously across Lebanon. Like the Stuxnet malware attack, the attacker was Israel. The United States denied involvement and said they knew nothing of the attack. Others noted, however, that some American groups based in the area had just been told to replace their pagers as recently as last week.

Timeline of the Lebanon pager attacks

At 3:30 local time, pagers across Lebanon began ringing. Recipients drew their pagers from their belts or bags and began trying to make sense of the page they had just received. Within several “beeps,” the pagers exploded.

Doctors inside Lebanon began receiving patients with mangled faces and hands. Reports of more than a dozen killed and thousands wounded rolled out of the country. Among those killed was the son of Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Ammar. Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amini, suffered injuries to his hand and face when the pager he was carrying exploded.

Why pagers?

Hezbollah’s use of pagers

Hezbollah members have eschewed using trackable electronics like cell phones and instead use wireless one-way paging devices to avoid intercepts or revealing their location. In February 2024, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah told his fighters to get rid of their cellular devices.

“Shut it off, bury it, put it in an iron chest and lock it up. Do it for the sake of security and to protect the blood and dignity of people. The collaborator (with the Israelis) is the cell phone in your hands, and those of your wife and your children. This cell phone is the collaborator and the killer.”

A few months ago, members were given new pagers, which hinted that the attack was likely a supply chain attack.

Supply chain attacks

Similar to a supply chain cyberattack in principle, attackers infiltrate the supply chain, likely near the final stages of the process (I.e., Near the retail sale), to damage or modify the product. In this instance, the attacks may have intercepted the pagers during manufacture or delivery and implanted them with an explosive such as RDX (I.e., Cyclonite, the explosive agent in C-4 plastic explosives and a key ingredient in Semtex).

You can view video of the Lebanon pager attacks below including slo-mo clips of the explosions.