Recently, according to sources, just hours before the explosion of thousands of pagers earlier this week, Hezbollah in Lebanon was still distributing new pagers to members of the organization, indicating that despite scanning these electronic devices for potential dangers, they believed them to be safe.
As reported by Reuters, a source told the media that a Hezbollah member received a new pager on Monday (September 16) which exploded the next day while still in its box.
Another source mentioned that a pager issued to a senior Hezbollah member a few days ago also exploded, injuring a subordinate.
On Tuesday (September 17), in an apparent coordinated attack, thousands of pagers were detonated at Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon, the suburbs of Beirut, and eastern Bekaa Valley.
By Wednesday (September 18), hundreds of Hezbollah walkie-talkies exploded. These series of attacks resulted in the deaths of 37 people, including at least two children, with over 3,000 others injured.
Lebanon and Hezbollah have alleged that Israel orchestrated these attacks. Israel neither denied nor confirmed involvement.
Another Lebanese source familiar with the components of these walkie-talkies informed Reuters on Friday (September 20) that the batteries of the walkie-talkies contained a highly explosive compound known as PETN. Earlier in the week, Reuters reported that up to three grams of explosives were concealed in the pagers, undetected by Hezbollah for months.
A security source stated, “It is difficult to detect these explosives with any equipment or scanner,” without specifying the type of scanner Hezbollah utilized.
Additionally, two other sources informed Reuters that since 2022, Hezbollah had been inspecting pagers arriving in Lebanon, even passing them through airport security checks to ensure they would not trigger alarms.
For this report, Reuters interviewed a total of six sources familiar with the details of these devices.
These sources did not specify the locations where the tests were conducted.
One source mentioned that these were routine checks and not due to specific suspicions regarding the pagers by Hezbollah.
However, despite routine inspections, the pagers distributed by Hezbollah still exploded.
Two security sources and an intelligence source told Reuters that after the pager explosion incident on Tuesday, Hezbollah suspected more devices might have been compromised and conducted a thorough inspection of all their communication equipment.
These two security sources mentioned that Hezbollah had begun investigating the supply chain of the pagers.
Yet, the review process was not yet completed, and on Wednesday afternoon, another walkie-talkie exploded.