The explosions came on the heels of two significant events recently.
1) Ansarallah in Yemen succeeded in launching a hypersonic missile that evaded the U.S. Navy and Israel’s Iron Dome, crossing the Red Sea to strike near Tel Aviv in Israel.
2) Israel published new war plans to include the return of 62,000 settlers in the area directly south of Lebanon. Evacuated in the wake of the October 7 Gaza breakout by Hamas and subsequent shelling by Hezbollah, those settlers have spent a nearly a year as evacuees. Their return necessitates a shift of focus militarily from Gaza in the south to the occupied territories in the north.
Those with a long memory may recall that in 1996 Israel used an exploding cell phone to kill Hamas operative Yahya Ayyash in Gaza. This was made possible by a well-renumerated betrayal attributed to Kamal Hamad, a Gaza contractor who was the uncle of Ayyash’s host.
One of the exploded pagers
We have not yet heard from Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, but I have seen reports that he was not injured in the attack. Not so lucky were the dozen people who have now died — including two young children — and the estimated 2,800 who were injured.
10-year-old Fatima Jaafar Abdullah, one of the children in Lebanon who died from Israel’s pager explosions.
Nasrallah did issue a warning back in February about the dangers of using cell phones.
The mobile phone is a listening device, so we ask our brothers in the border villages and all of the south, especially the fighters and their families, to do without their mobile phones for the preservation and safety of people’s blood and dignities. The mobile phone is a deadly agent that provides specific and lethal information.
According to musician, researcher, and pro-Palestine activist Lowkey, the exploding devices were manufactured by Motorola, a company in bed with the Israeli defence establishment. In a Twitter thread, he explained the deep entrenchment between Motorola and the Israeli security apparatus. The main takeaway is that Motorola in collaboration with the Israeli military built a network [for] in-house use that would “prevent counter-surveillance by resistance forces in the region.”
However and by whomever the deed was done, Israel has turned the page(r) on the most recent phase of their genocidal war against Palestinians.
Will the Zionists launch a massive attack on Lebanon with more conventional weapons in the coming days? Did the U.S. greenlight the escalation, or put the brakes on? What communication devices will Hezbollah now pivot to using? Among many unknowns one thing is for certain: resistance will continue until Palestine is free.
Lisa Savage obtained an undergraduate degree from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, in May 1977. She received a graduate degree from the University of Southern Maine, Portland/Gorham, in May 1997. Her professional experience includes working as a teacher in Maine public schools for 25 years. She earned a National Board Professional Teacher Certification and was a member of the Maine Education Association. Savage worked as a small business owner/operator from 1988 to 1995 when she enrolled in graduate school to become a teacher. In 2020 she ran for election to the U.S. Senate to represent Maine.
