A second series of explosions occurred in Beirut: this time they detonated radios
Photo: REUTERS.
The day after the massive explosion of several thousand Hezbollah pagers, which killed 12 people and injured more than 4,000, a second series of explosions rocked Beirut, this time detonating radios. Local residents have also reported incidents in which other electronic devices exploded, from laptops and kitchen appliances to electronic locks. Three people were reportedly killed and three hundred injured as a result of another attack. Explosions occurred, including at the funeral of Hezbollah members who died the day before.
The deadly walkie-talkies were purchased around the same time as the pagers, Reuters reports, citing its sources. The publication Axios claims that Israel was involved in the explosions of thousands of personal portable radios of members of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah. These devices, like the pagers, were mined in advance by Israeli intelligence services and then secretly supplied to Hezbollah as emergency communication systems in case of a military confrontation with Israel.
The editor-in-chief of the IT-World portal and the IT Expert magazine, Andrei Vinogradov, explained to KP.RU how the organizers of the attack could have technically acted. It is possible to gain access to a pager network for mass distribution of “leftist” messages if you have a transmitter configured in a certain way.
“According to the latest information, the pagers contained explosives that detonated after a coded signal,” Vinogradov said. – It is very easy to do this schematically.
– Of course, there is no need to explain exactly how. They also wrote that the explosions of the devices were preceded by overheating of the batteries…
– If the device is powered by ordinary batteries (saline or alkaline, also known as alkaline – Ed.), it is unrealistic to overheat them to an explosive state: they will heat up and leak, but nothing more.
Lithium batteries are very capricious when it comes to charging and operation, so their viability depends primarily on the controller installed in the device. If not used correctly, a lithium battery can overheat, catch fire, and even explode.
— Are pagers used in Russia?
– The last pager license expired in June 2023, as far as I know, no. (However, they sell “simplified” pagers for restaurants: they notify when the order is ready and are controlled from a small base station. We also use pagers in medicine – for example, they show the nurse the room number where she needs to go – Ed.)
—Is it possible to do something similar to what happened in Lebanon with smartphones?
– If you put explosives and a fuse in your smartphone, yes. Another problem is that different smartphones run on different hardware and software platforms. In the case of pagers, there was only one pre-programmed model.
