At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 injured in Lebanon on Tuesday when thousands of wireless devices used by Hezbollah members exploded. A senior Lebanese security source claimed Israel’s Mossad spy agency had planted explosives inside 5,000 Taiwan-made pagers or “beepers” ordered by the Iran-backed group months before the blasts.
What are pagers?
A pager or ‘beeper’ is a small, portable communications device that receives short messages, usually numeric or alphanumeric, over a radio frequency signal. Pagers were widely used before cell phones became popular. It was an important communications tool, especially for professionals such as doctors, journalists, technicians, and managers. It allowed them to receive important messages even in remote areas.
How do pagers work?
Operating the pager was simple and efficient. When a message was sent via radio waves, the device would alert the user with a distinctive beep. After this signal the user had to locate a nearby public or landline phone to answer the message.
As technology progressed, pagers underwent significant improvements. Newer models were equipped with a small screen, allowing them to display short messages directly on the device.
However, by the 1990s mobile phones began to replace these small devices. The convenience of mobile phones rapidly reduced the demand for pagers and by the late 1990s, beepers had virtually disappeared from public use.
Why are Hezbollah members still using pagers?
A recent cyberattack on the Iran-backed Hezbollah revealed that the pager, which many believed to be obsolete, was still being used by the group.
The pagers were used by Hezbollah fighters as a low-tech communications means to evade Israeli location tracking.
According to reports, Israel’s Mossad spy agency planted explosives inside 5,000 pagers imported by Hezbollah months before Tuesday’s blasts.
A Lebanese security source told Reuters the pagers belonged to Taiwan-based Gold Apollo, but the company said in a statement it does not manufacture the devices. It said they were made by a company called BAC which has a licence to use its brand, but did not provide further details.
A senior Lebanese security source said the group had ordered 5,000 beepers from Gold Apollo, which multiple sources say were brought into the country earlier this year.
