The Iran-backed militant group said handheld communication devices belonging to its members had blown up across the country.

The Iran-backed militant group said handheld communication devices belonging to its members had blown up across the country.

The militant group Hezbollah said Tuesday that pagers belonging to its members had blown up across Lebanon, killing at least eight and injuring more than 2,700, according to the country’s Health Ministry.

Iran-backed Hezbollah pinned the blame for the widespread and seemingly simultaneous blasts on Israel, without providing evidence for its claim. Israel did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the accusations and the pager explosions.

More than 200 people were in critical condition after the blasts, Public Health Minister Dr. Firas Abiad told reporters.

Amid what was developing into a nationwide health emergency, Lebanese officials ordered the public to avoid using handheld communication devices.

Mojtaba Amani, Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, was among those injured, according to the country’s embassy. In an post on X, it described his injuries as “superficial,” and added that Amani was in a good condition.

  • EleventhHour@lemmy.world
    15·
    3 months ago

    This takes “blowing up my pager” to new levels

    Yeah, that was a thing in the before times. Shut up.

  • shyguyblue@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    3 months ago

    pagers

    Exploding

    Kill 8 and injure more than 2,700

    Damn, I’ve seen vape batteries going up, but i never thought of a (most likely) smaller pager battery doing that much damage. Wonder what the chemistry of those batteries was…

  • workerONE@lemmy.world
    71·
    3 months ago

    NPR was saying these devices are used by people in government too and that government vehicles were seen arriving at the hospital, and that children had been killed. They didn’t just target Hezbollah.

  • Brkdncr@lemmy.world
    31·
    3 months ago

    Oh wow if this was a remote hardware hack that would be pretty unique. How many other hardware hacks have injured or killed people?

    • kmartburrito@lemmy.world
      18·
      3 months ago

      This was a clever supply chain attack. I say clever because I don’t think anything like this and at this scale has happened before, but due to it being lethal it’s crazy scary. I’m not condoning it or praising it. As a cybersecurity professional we usually see people infiltrate the supply chain of code to inject their own, not actually putting explosives into communication devices and then using the network to remotely detonate.

      • Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
        9·
        3 months ago

        As an infosec/cybersecurity professional, I am fascinated by this. As a human being living in this cyberpunk dystopia, I am disgusted.

        • Mayor Poopington@lemmy.worldEnglish
          10·
          3 months ago

          After seeing some of the photos, I don’t think it was just a battery explosion. I believe someone (im sure we could guess who) tampered with a massive shipment.

    • ABCDE@lemmy.world
      2·
      3 months ago

      Unlikely, it would be a factory-level thing I imagine, trying to make explosions that big from just hacking hardware (specifically small pagers) would be nigh-on impossible (if not impossible).

      • edric@lemm.eeEnglish
        3·
        3 months ago

        Yeah I feel like this was done on the supply-chain. Somewhere along the way they were able to put in whatever explosives that was used during manufacturing or somewhere during transit/shipment.