"If it were iPhones that were leaving the factory with explosives inside, the media would be a hell of a lot faster to cotton on to what a horrific precedent has been set today. Nothing can justify this. It's a crime. A crime. And everyone in the world is less safe for it." -- Edward Snowden @Snowden Source: https://x.com/Snowden/status/1836145193252221207 ................. Hezbollah Pagers Explode In Apparent Attack Across Lebanon Eight people were killed and 2,750 wounded, country’s health minister says By Adam Chamseddine The Wall Street Journal September 17, 2024 at 2:51 pm ET https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/hundreds-of-hezbollah-operatives-pagers-explode-in-apparent-attack-across-lebanon-cf31cad4 BEIRUT — Pagers carried by thousands of Hezbollah operatives exploded at about the same time Tuesday afternoon in what appeared to be an unprecedented attack that authorities said injured more than 2,700 and killed eight across Lebanon. Many of the affected pagers were from a new shipment that the group received in recent days, people familiar with the matter said. A Hezbollah official said many fighters had such devices, speculating that malware might have caused the devices to explode. The official said some people felt the pagers heat up and disposed of them before they burst. Hezbollah said a number of pagers carried by its members exploded simultaneously at 3:30 p.m. local time. It couldn’t immediately be determined what caused the blasts, which were spread out across the country in several areas where Hezbollah has a heavy presence. Hezbollah and the Lebanese government blamed Israel for the attack. Both said civilians were killed, and Hezbollah threatened to retaliate. The Israeli military declined to comment. Iranian state television said the country’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was injured by his pager but was conscious and not in danger. Iran is the main supporter of Hezbollah, a U.S.-designated terrorist group that has grown into one of the world’s best-armed nonstate militias. The apparent attack comes amid growing concerns that tensions along the Lebanese border are in danger of escalating, as the daily exchange of cross-border fire grows in intensity and efforts to strike a deal to pause the fighting in Gaza fail to bear fruit. Israel’s government is under increasing pressure to return tens of thousands of evacuees to their homes in the north by silencing Hezbollah’s rockets and drones. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday that dimming prospects for diplomacy were leaving military action as the only alternative. Hezbollah nodded to what it called threatening speeches and comments from Israel and said its forces were at the highest level of readiness to defend Lebanon. Awareness that something unprecedented had happened spread quickly across Lebanon and the region, as social-media chatter about exploding pagers and bloody videos of the aftermath built to a crescendo.