We are closer to you than your pocket
The operation of exploding the pagers of Lebanese militia members and their affiliates in Lebanon and Syria, which took place on Tuesday, has intensified the existing tensions in the Middle East. An unprecedented event has occurred, and now all eyes are on the Lebanese militia to see the consequences of this special operation and the possible response of Nasrallah and his forces.
The successive explosions of pagers in the pockets and bags of forces affiliated with the Lebanese militia, captured by store surveillance cameras and citizen-recorded images, have created a wave of concern in Lebanon. Several thousand injured and several dead were left in the wake of this operation. The situation in Lebanese hospitals became so serious that a call for blood donations to help the injured was made, and images of collecting and sending blood bags to hospitals became part of Tuesday’s news coverage. The hourly increase in the number of injured recorded in Lebanese medical centers has been astonishing.
Reporters quickly began to investigate the events and discovered that Israeli officials had not informed their American counterparts about this operation beforehand. This was while Amos Hochstein, the most influential figure of the Biden team in Israeli-Lebanese affairs, was in Tel Aviv negotiating with Israeli officials. Yoav Galant, the Israeli Defense Minister, who has a precarious position and is close to being dismissed, had explicitly told Hochstein in face-to-face talks that despite the Biden team’s efforts, the situation on the Lebanese borders would move towards maximum confrontation. He had not informed Hochstein about the pager explosion operation.
The important point is that hours before the Israeli operation, Shin Bet revealed the discovery and neutralization of a Lebanese militia operation aimed at assassinating a former senior Israeli official. Images of a discovered and neutralized roadside bomb were being published when the news of the pager explosions arrived.
Given the known type of pagers, the manufacturing company, a Taiwanese firm, was identified. However, the company’s manager, unveiling various models produced by the company and explaining about the specific model in question, announced that the Lebanese militia pagers were not produced by this company. These pagers were manufactured by a Hungarian company that received production licenses from the Taiwanese company. The Hungarian company in question has not yet responded to any reporters. Considering the growing military cooperation between Iran and the government of Hungary’s controversial leader, Viktor Orbán, who is notorious in international politics, the story of purchasing pagers from this Hungarian company is highly sensitive.
The critical hours of Wednesday were hours of waiting to determine the definitive stance of the Lebanese militia regarding the Israeli operation. The well-known Israeli journalist Axios, quoting his sources, stated that the Israelis carried out the operation with full awareness of Hezbollah’s inevitable response. Currently, in the hours following the Israeli operation, Hezbollah is still in shock, and a significant part of the organization’s internal interactions and communications has been damaged. Military and security experts are confident that the organizational communications process of the Lebanese militia is facing a crisis because everything needs to be reviewed again, and any security gaps and potential threats must be identified. The fact that the pagers were used to prevent Israeli tracking and potential dangers and were recently distributed among members is very bitter for this organization. Among the news on Wednesday, Al-Monitor’s report on this Israeli operation caught attention, claiming that the Israeli team executing the operation concluded that the Lebanese militia might have become suspicious of these pagers and their potential to explode, and out of fear of their plan being exposed, they executed it earlier than scheduled.