Pager Attack in Lebanon and Syria

[Ernie]

https://apnews.com/live/lebanon-syria-p ... ah-updates

Pager Attack. I've not yet heard of pagers being used as a weapon before this.

[Ken]

Has anyone claimed or admitted responsibility.

Seems like it has to be Israel. Only a state actor would have the sophistication and resources to pull off something this elaborate. And only Israel has the motive. Every other state actor in the region including the US at least wants to be seen as a neutral broker at worst if not an overt Hezbollah supporter. The US is obviously not a Hezbollah supporter. But they want to maintain enough of a neutral status to be able to talk to and negotiate with the other Arab states who might be.

[barnhart]

Pagers are still in use?

[ken_sylvania]

Pagers are still in use?

Sounds like that shipment of them is no longer in use.

[Ken]

Pagers are still in use?

From the news reports, Hezbollah had switched to pagers because they are impossible to track unlike cell phones which the Israelis were using to locate terrorists and target them. Modern pagers actually allow 2-way messaging. So they are basically simple text messaging machines.

Even if you *think* you have turned off location services on your cell phone, are you REALLY REALLY sure that it hasn't been hacked by malware that still allows it to be tracked? Are you willing to bet your life on that?

[Judas Maccabeus]

Mossad.

[Ernie]

https://indianexpress.com/article/what- ... r-9573113/

The physics.

[Ken]

Pagers were still used in medicine in the early 2000s when my wife was in residency (2003-2006)

The hospital had call pagers that would be passed around to whichever resident was on call at that moment. So if they needed a doctor they would just message the pager and some doctor was supposed to have it in their possession and answer. So if you wanted to do something out of town that would keep you occupied when it was your call you would have to beg someone else to take the pager from you. It was like the hot potato that no one wanted.

Today of course it is just all cell phones and they have dedicated secure messaging apps and such.

Of course hospitals still use fax machines to this day so they aren't exactly paragons of modernity when it comes to communications technology.

[Judas Maccabeus]

https://indianexpress.com/article/what- ... r-9573113/

The physics.

More likely don with a bit of plastic explosives. Mossad is surely not above that. Overloading a lithium battery has unpredictable results.

[the-real-steve]

Pagers are still in use?

I'm a bit shocked, too. Beyond the fire/ems service, I don't know of any industry that uses them. And even in the fire service, various smart phone apps are becoming dominant.