The strike on the communications system adds to the human losses that Hezbollah has suffered since the escalation began
The simultaneous explosions on Tuesday of hundreds of pagers used by elements in HezbollahA new wave of bombings on Wednesday targeted the party’s wireless devices, a severe blow to its communications system that could affect its performance in any future war with the Hebrew state, analysts believe.
These unprecedented attacks, which were carried out over two days, come after targeted operations targeting leaders or officials in the Lebanese Shiite party, including military commander Fouad Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli raid in the southern suburbs of Beirut on July 30.
Hezbollah members, including fighters, health and administrative staff, use the “pagers” system to communicate, which are wireless pagers, as an alternative to mobile phones, due to Israel’s penetration of the communications network in Lebanon, a security source said.
At least 12 people were killed and about 2,800 others were injured in the simultaneous explosions of communication devices that occurred on Tuesday in areas considered strongholds of Hezbollah in Lebanon.
And I fell New wave of communication device bombings The Shiite party affiliated with Hezbollah in Lebanon on Wednesday killed 14 people and wounded 450 across the country, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
The largest number of wounded was recorded in the southern suburb of Beirut, which includes Hezbollah’s main institutions. The other wounded were distributed between southern Lebanon, where the party’s fighters have been exchanging fire on the border with Israel for about a year, and in eastern Lebanon, where the party is believed to store some of its most prominent weapons.
Initial data from an investigation conducted by the Lebanese authorities into the Pager explosions revealed that the devices were previously programmed and contained explosive materials, a security source told Agence France-Presse on Wednesday.
“terrestrial communications network”
Since the war in Gaza began about a year ago, the border area between Israel and Lebanon has witnessed an almost daily exchange of shelling between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas.
Israel is carrying out targeted strikes against Hezbollah fighters through drone strikes, particularly targeting motorcycles and cars.
Since the first weeks of the escalation, the party has asked its members to stop using mobile phones to prevent the Israeli army from being able to determine their location.
The security source explained that the communication devices, a new shipment of which exploded on Tuesday, are usually used to “call fighters and ask medical and administrative crews to return to work, in addition to warning of Israeli drones in the airspace.”
Despite the unprecedented scale of the attack that took place on Tuesday, retired Lebanese Army Colonel Hisham Jaber said that it “will not have a significant impact on the party on the ground” because “it has other secret means that it uses.”
Jaber explained that Hezbollah has an “internal communications network (…)” which is a ground network “that it established years ago (…) present in all regions between the leadership, as well as for communication from one region to another.”
In contrast, a security source who preferred to remain anonymous explained that Hezbollah suspects that “part of its internal landline communications network has also been hacked,” “but the party has another secure communications network for communication between leaders.”
Political analyst and expert on Hezbollah affairs, Amal Saad, said that the explosions of the communication devices are “of course a technological and security breach for Hezbollah,” which means that the attack will have “an impact on command and control, and they will have to find new ways to avoid such things.”
Heiko Wimmen, director of the Syria, Iraq and Lebanon file at the International Crisis Group, also considered that Hezbollah “now has to re-evaluate its communications system (…) and find alternative solutions.”
Human losses
In addition to this blow to the communications system, the number of human losses that Hezbollah has suffered since the escalation with Israel began about a year ago is also large, as more than 400 of its fighters have been killed so far, including leaders in the party over the past months.
With the large number of people injured in the communications device explosions, “there are hundreds who may not be able to move at the moment, unable to perform their duties in the party,” according to Heiko Wiemann.
“That would definitely be a deal-breaker,” he added.
In contrast, Colonel Jaber believed that the large number of wounded would not necessarily have an impact on Hezbollah’s operations, saying, “We are talking about three thousand wounded, while the party has 50 thousand fighters.”
Jaber explained that the party’s senior political officials do not use pagers and therefore none of them were harmed in these explosions.
However, the son of Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar was killed in the explosions, while the son of MP Hassan Fadlallah and the son of the party’s Liaison and Coordination Unit official Wafiq Safa were injured.
The security source said that a senior official in the military operations in the south was injured in the same explosions, while the party lost contact with a number of its fighters on the front line, and their communication devices also exploded.
Analysts noted that these losses would affect Hezbollah’s management of operations against Israel.
“In every war, communications are vital,” said Heiko Wiemann. “If the enemy can hack your communications, you are in a difficult situation.”
Amal Saad said, “Regarding how (the explosions) will affect Hezbollah’s ability to wage war, it is clear that it will have an impact” on Hezbollah’s military calculations, as it will have to reconsider its communications system.”
