Hezball-less

Precision targeting of Hezbollah terrorists. The world is agog but silent in the face of the 8,000 rockets indiscriminately fired by Hezb’Allah at Israeli civilians.

The Jerusalem Post reports that 2:36 am on Tuesday, the Prime Minister’s Office sent out a statement saying that the security cabinet updated the objectives of the current war to include “returning the residents of the North securely to their homes.”

The brief statement concluded: “Israel will continue to act to implement this objective.”

 Fourteen hours later, hundreds of wireless pagers exploded across Lebanon and even in Damascus in the pockets and bags carried by members of Hezbollah, wounding more than 2,800 and delivering a substantial physical and morale blow to the terrorist organization.

Israel did not need to declare that returning the 60,000 displaced Israelis to their homes was a war aim to go after Hezbollah men carrying pagers via those pagers, but that declaration does put the attack into a certain context: what was for the last 11 months is not what will be.

Eleven people were killed and thousands injured after handheld pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon on Tuesday, according to reports.

Hezbollah blamed Israel vowing retaliation, while Israel declined to comment. Here’s a video showing what happened.

Munitions experts suggested the pagers may have been packed with military-grade explosives triggered by an alphanumeric text message.

Israel has said it wants to secure the Lebanon border and allow its residents to return, which requires security against Hezbollah. Israeli leaders say they anticipate a major response from the terrorist group.

I wanted to give a little insight into what this operation could have looked like and how complex, innovative, and audacious it was. Please sit back and enjoy the story.

If we start from the very beginning, Israel would have to know that Hezbollah was planning on switching…

— Raylan Givens (@JewishWarrior13) September 17, 2024

Hezbollah Gets a Pager Message

The Shiite militia’s leaders learn they’re vulnerable in a war with Israel.

By The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board, Sept. 17, 2024:

The explosion of pagers held by Hezbollah operatives across Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday is an audacious display of modern technological warfare. It’s also a warning to Iran’s Shiite proxy militia of the human price it will pay if it continues bombing northern Israel.

More than 4,000 were injured and 11 killed, according to Lebanon, when the pagers exploded at about the same time. The pagers were from a shipment Hezbollah had received in recent days and passed out to its members to allow communication without the vulnerability of cellphones to eavesdropping. Bad call.

Hezbollah officials told the press that the pager shipment may have been infected with malware to cause them to explode on receiving a signal. The malware could have caused the pager batteries to overheat, or perhaps there was a charge planted in the devices that could have been detonated remotely.

Lebanon’s government and Hezbollah blamed Israel, which declined comment. But Occam’s razor says it was an Israeli operation. Israel has shown a remarkable ability to use intelligence and technology to strike behind enemy lines. In July it killed a Hezbollah leader in Beirut, and it was almost certainly behind the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a military guest house in Tehran. It reportedly used a remotely controlled machine gun to kill Iran’s leading nuclear scientist in 2020.

More important than the how of the attack is the reason for it. Israel has ample cause to target Hezbollah fighters who have conducted a daily bombing campaign against Israel from Lebanon. They have fired more than 8,000 rockets and missiles at Israel since Oct. 7, forcing some 60,000 Israelis from their homes for nearly a year. The bombing has widened recently to other Israeli cities.

No sovereign state can tolerate this, and the domestic pressure on Israel’s leaders to respond has been rising. On Monday the Israeli security cabinet added to its war aims the safe return of northern residents to their homes. On Tuesday Israel said it thwarted a Hezbollah plot to kill a former senior Israeli security official.

The Biden Administration has warned Israel against an escalation in Lebanon, and the risks are considerable. But Israel can’t afford to let a terrorist militia backed by Iran and operating next door bomb its territory with impunity. The pager attack was discriminating, exploding in the hands and pockets of Hezbollah combatants.

In the best case, the pager operation will persuade Hezbollah leaders that their lives are at considerable risk if a broader war breaks out. They can’t say they didn’t get the message.

Continue…..