Image Source: CNN
World – Although Hezbollah has accused Israel of the recent terror attacks in Lebanon and Syria, Israeli officials have remained silent.
However, UK-based war correspondent and Director at the Centre for Foreign Policy Analysis, Professor Paul Moorcraft, believes Israel is one of the few nations capable of executing such a complex operation, making them the most likely suspects. The strike was precisely timed and carefully coordinated, demonstrating a high level of sophistication.
The attack, which involved turning communication devices like pagers and walkie-talkies into weaponised explosives, resulted in thousands of injuries, with hundreds critically wounded and dozens dead across both countries. In response to the attack, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah condemned it as an act of war by Israel and vowed retaliation in a televised address.
“As an enemy of Hezbollah, I can’t think of anybody else, although there may have been some cooperation from some Lebanese. A lot of Lebanese don’t like Hezbollah—not only the religious; a lot of Sunnis don’t like the Shia Hezbollah and the fact that Hezbollah has taken over the whole country.”
“So, I don’t think it would be difficult for the IDF to recruit some local Lebanese to help with the shipment. The fact is, they have so many Hezbollah people in Syria as well as in other countries, so this is a very impressive intelligence coup and a double-tap operation.”
What Was the Intended Purpose for the Explosions?
Professor Moorcraft suggested that the coordinated nature of the attack hints at a possible attempt to either preempt a major Hezbollah offensive or shift the focus of the war from Gaza to northern Israel and southern Lebanon. Though the exact reasoning behind the attack remains unclear, it points to a broader strategic goal by Israel to weaken Hezbollah’s operational capabilities and diminish its influence in the region.
What is clear, however, is that this marks a serious escalation. The scale and precision of the attack indicate a shift in tactics, with the potential to destabilise the region further.
“They shifted focus from Gaza. The new phase of the war, as the Israelis say, is in the north. So, I think this was going to be a major assault along the lines of the 2006 war. But because Hezbollah’s intelligence got wind of it, they decided to use it or lose it. So, I think the situation was preparatory to an attack, either an attack by the Israelis or to stop a Hezbollah attack. It’s gone off at the wrong time in the wrong place.”
“It’s a double tap — in other words, two different operations on two different days. It’s destroyed the morale of Hezbollah, and it’s actually made the Israelis blind because they can’t track what Hezbollah is doing. They can’t monitor the phones. They can’t monitor anything. So, it has demoralised Hezbollah and re-moralised Israel.”
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Building the Explosive Devices
The real question is, how could an attack like this even happen, and how did they build the bombs? Moorcraft believes it was likely years in the making. The operation involved everything from taking over a pager company’s subsidiary to embedding explosives in these communication devices, pointing to careful, long-term planning.
He speculated that Israel may have used offshore locations in different countries to execute this covert mission. The devices were cleverly designed to look ordinary, making them nearly impossible to detect until they were triggered all at once through a remote signal.
“The Israelis are highly organised. Their Mossad services are some of the best, although also one of the worst, because they allowed the Hamas attack to happen almost a year ago now. They must have bought the company and done it somewhere offshore, possibly in Hungary or somewhere like Cyprus, somewhere accessible to Lebanon. Then they shipped them in.”
“It’s quite clever to have so many. The principle is straightforward: small military-style explosives, which can be set off by a signal, essentially a text. To do it all at the same time—this is highly organised intelligence work. The Israelis haven’t admitted to it, but they’re the only ones with the capability.”
Moorcraft highlighted that this attack demonstrates just how vulnerable technology can be, showing that even the most outdated and simple devices can be exploited by external forces. This raises serious concerns, not just for the military and resistance fighters but also for civilians, who could be targeted in similar ways.
However, he doesn’t believe we’ll see bombs hidden in our phones. The real danger, he suggests, lies in cyber warfare, where AI systems could be hacked and manipulated.
