Turning Telecommunications Devices into Weapons: New Form of Indiscriminate Killing Threatens Middle East

Editorial

15:59 JST, September 22, 2024

Common telecommunications devices were turned into weapons in an instant, and the lives of many civilians were taken. This is an unprecedented form of indiscriminate killing that is nothing short of shocking and outrageous.

In Lebanon, pagers and walkie-talkies carried by fighters of Hezbollah, a Shiite Islamist militant group, exploded over two consecutive days. More than 30 people were killed and about 3,000 were injured. Many children and civilians who had nothing to do with Hezbollah were caught up in the incidents.

Explosives are thought to have been planted in the pagers and walkie-talkies and detonated simultaneously by remote control. Hezbollah declared that these attacks were committed by Israel, which is hostile to Hezbollah, and vowed to retaliate.

It should have been possible to predict that many people would be harmed. The U.N. high commissioner for human rights naturally condemned the incident, saying it “violates international human rights law.”

There is no doubt that the forces that carried out the attacks had planned a covert operation for a long time.

Since February, members of Hezbollah have been refraining from using mobile phones and have been communicating with each other through pagers and walkie-talkies. This step was taken to prevent Israel from intercepting the content of communications and location data.

These devices were used in the attacks. High-performance explosives, which could cause large blasts even with a small amount, are said to have been planted in the pagers. Israel is suspected of setting up a dummy company in Hungary and exporting to Lebanon products that agents had tampered with.

The pagers’ trademark rights were provided to the dummy company by a Taiwan business. In addition, the walkie-talkies bore the logo of a Japanese company.

It is very serious if the supply chain, which spans multiple countries, was abused to conceal a terrorist plot. How can strict management of the supply chain be achieved? The international community as a whole must urgently work on measures against such actions.

There are concerns that the situation in the Middle East will further deteriorate as a result of the latest attacks and that the cycle of retaliation will accelerate.

Israel has been stepping up its offensives against the Islamist group Hamas in the Palestinian territory of Gaza. However, the goal of destroying Hamas has not been achieved, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing a decline in public approval.

Netanyahu might be trying to deflect criticism by expanding the battlefronts with new attacks on Hezbollah to heighten the sense of crisis. Sacrificing civilians for his political survival is unacceptable.

The U.N. Security Council should take a firm stance to stop Israel’s indiscriminate attacks. The role of the United States, Israel’s largest backer, is particularly significant.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Sept. 22, 2024)