By: Pakinam Khaled
Journalist Khaled Hassan, editor-in-chief of "Alam Rakamy " newspaper, confirmed that the ability of the occupying state "Israel" to hack and detonate the pagers used by Hezbollah members and some Lebanese civilians, such as doctors, and detonated them in more than one geographical area is part of the electronic espionage wars practiced by the occupying state against both Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine, as Israel possesses the technological expertise and human competencies that enabled it to hack and penetrate all electronic communication devices at the same time, without distinguishing between resistance fighters or civilian citizens, with the help of international parties or the manufacturers of these electronic devices, which arrived in Lebanon about 3 months ago.
This came in his comment to "Nile News" channel after the disclosure of initial reports indicating that Israel was able to hack communication devices used by Hezbollah members and detonated them, and devices carried by a number of Hezbollah elements to Israeli hacking which led to its explosion in their hands in various Lebanese regions and the announcement of the Ministry of Health of the arrival of a large number of injuries, as the Public Health Emergency Operations Center, affiliated with the Ministry of Public Health, issued an urgent statement asking all hospitals in various Lebanese regions to be on maximum alert and raise their level of readiness to meet the urgent need for health emergency services. The ministry asked all citizens who own pagers to throw them away.
Added Pagers appeared in the sixties of the last century, as a wireless paging device works by receiving a signal from a transmitter. When someone sends a message to the pager, this message is converted into a radio signal that can be received by the pager and the device emits an alert sound or vibration to alert its owner of the presence of a message. After receiving the message, the user can call the number on the pager screen to respond to the message or communicate with the sender.
The editor-in-chief of " Alam Rakamy " explained that with the technological development, modern pager models combine the features of wireless communication and smart applications, allowing users to send texts, calls, and alerts without having to use their phones. In addition, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi technology provide a seamless connection between devices to improve the communication experience, and pagers eventually become old tools in the world of modern communication, but their prominent role in the development of the communications industry cannot be forgotten. However, with the emergence of mobile phones, interest and demand for pagers have declined significantly.
Pagers operate on a lithium battery, similar to smartphones, so the first scenario for the hacking process is that the hacking process relied on these devices by hacking their own frequencies and controlling them and occupying the device greatly, by giving them a set of commands in a short time, which aim to exhaust the battery, which leads to the pager overheating and then exploding. The second scenario is that the communications unit in the Israeli army succeeded in placing a small amount of explosives in the pagers when they were manufactured and before shipping them to Lebanon, and we must wait for the completion of the investigations conducted by the Lebanese authorities. The editor-in-chief of "Digital World" explained that the Israeli hack is the biggest security breach that Hezbollah has been exposed to, especially since the party has prevented its members from using their mobile phones for a long time after Israel was able to hack into Lebanese communications networks and carry out terrorist operations to kill some of the party's leaders.
Regarding the impact of this hack on users, journalist Khaled Hassan said that the user's injury from the explosion of the pager device cannot be fatal, but the explosion of the lithium battery can lead to burns of varying levels and degrees according to the proximity of the device to the user's body. Therefore, the main goal of the hacking operation is to cut off one of the most important communication channels between Hezbollah members.
The editor-in-chief of “Alam Rakamy” confirmed that it is common knowledge in the field of communications security that when new electronic communications devices arrive, they are subjected to a testing process to ensure that they do not contain any spying devices. Therefore, if these pager devices had reached Hezbollah only 3 months ago, from one of the East Asian countries, then a comprehensive survey of these devices should have been conducted to ensure their safety and the absence of any eavesdropping or spying chips or programs inside them, before they were distributed to party members.
