A day after the pager blast that killed twelve and injured around 3000 people in Lebanon, Hezbollah came across another blast, this time thousands of walkie-talkies, that the group used in Beirut. The explosion killed 20 and left more than 450 injured. While Israel hasn’t uttered anything on this series of incidents, Hezbollah has alleged the war-engaged nation is responsible for these unprecedented attacks. The US on the other hand has kept it out of these explosions and said that they had no input about the same.
Walkie-talkies bought five months ago
Speaking to Reuters, a security source stated that the walkie-talkies were also bought just five months ago, around the same time when pagers were bought by Hezbollah. Notably, after being engaged in a war against Israel since last October, Hezbollah announced a few months before that the group would drop cellular phones as they can be traced and impose security threats to the group. It was then that the paramilitary group switched to primitive means of communication like pagers and walkie-talkies.
What next after walkie-talkie?
Though Israel hasn’t taken responsibility for any of the explosions, geopolitical experts are wondering what next. Hezbollah should definitely look into all the kinds of purchases they have made in the past five to six months. If infusing three grams of explosives in pagers is possible, adulteration in the product has taken place at the level of manufacturing or assembling best known to the conspirers, then other devices can also be a threat. Israel seems to have moved to the old format of destruction, the route which is less taken and is considered negligible by the war experts these days.
Possible motives of Israel
Multiple theories have floated as the motive behind the consecutive blasts in Lebanon. One is that this attack could be Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempt to restore his position after Israel became engaged in war with Hamas and consequently with Hezbollah, which openly supports the militant group. Another theory says that infiltrating Israel on October 7, 2023, came as a big setback to Mossad which is considered one of the top security agencies. These attacks are a result of their resentment and revenge and their re-establishment as the top agency.
The third theory which tries to explain why the attacks seem to have taken place hastily says that Hezbollah might have come across the information of security breach by Israel and they consequently would have started working on the scrutiny. So going by the formula of now or never, the operation was performed. Another possible reason for taking up the task on consecutive days can be the establishment of terror amongst Hezbollah and other groups that support and finance Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
