What are these “pagers” that exploded in Lebanon?

Jane Anderson
Jane Anderson
C'est quoi ces « beeps » qui ont explosé au Liban?

The images are impressive, as are the toll: 9 injured and more than 2,800 injured in the simultaneous explosion of pagers in Lebanon.

Used by Hezbollah militants

The explosions took place simultaneously in Lebanon on Tuesday, September 17: thousands of “pagers” exploded, causing more than 2,800 injuries and 9 deaths. Hezbollah militants used it to communicate with each other. According to The New York Times, explosives were hidden by specialized Israeli services in these beepers before being sent en masse to Lebanon. This attack is completely unprecedented in terms of its mode of operation and also its scale. They have “were distributed by Hezbollah to most of these executives precisely to avoid electronic penetration by Israeli intelligence who had interception and tapping capabilities on their mobile phones” at the microphone of TF1/LCI consultant Didier François.

What are “pagers” for?

In the age of cell phones, no one seems to use them anymore and yet these are devices that we know well if we watch, for example, medical series like Urgence or House because it is on them that a brief message arrives for the hero asking him to come back to the hospital for example for an emergency. It is a small device that can receive and sometimes send very short messages. It was worn in particular on the belt and it was very popular in the 90s (known in France for example under the name Tam-Tam).

As these devices send paging messages, they pass through their own waves which prevents them from being hacked. Unlike mobiles, they do not have integrated GPS so those who use them cannot be located. They work with batteries and can last a very long time. When the message arrives, it emits a beep indicating its owner to look at the screen.