During his childhood in Beirut in the early 2000s, Nadim Kobeissi experienced the frightening sounds of sonic booms from Israel Defense Forces’ planes, reverberating through the air and causing vibrations intense enough to sometimes drive him and his family to sleep in hallways, away from the threat of shattered glass. This tactic left a profound psychological imprint, so much so that even after moving away from Lebanon, the crackle of fireworks would trigger involuntary sweating and trembling in Kobeissi.
This week, the alarming sounds in Lebanon were not caused by jets but by electronic devices bursting into flames in the grasp of unsuspecting individuals. Now a security researcher in Paris, Kobeissi reports a familiar anxiety as he talks to his family back in Lebanon, where concerns are mounting over unusually hot iPhones, prompting fears and questions about their safety.
“They’re asking if their phones are compromised or if they might explode,” Kobeissi expresses. “It’s more terrifying than the sonic booms since it’s a completely unknown threat, and there’s no easy way to reassure them.”
Recent days saw explosives concealed in numerous pagers—and subsequently in walkie-talkies and other electronics—being triggered across Lebanon in what seems to have been an orchestrated assault aimed at Hezbollah members. The scale of the devastation from this unforeseen crisis is immense. The attacks resulted in at least 32 fatalities, including children and hospital staff, and left over 3,300 people injured as reported by the national health authorities. Hospitals are overwhelmed with victims, both Hezbollah affiliates and innocent bystanders, many suffering from severe injuries such as lost eyes and limbs. One particularly chilling incident occurred at a funeral for several Hezbollah leaders and a child, when walkie-talkies suddenly exploded causing mass hysteria among the attendees.
The details surrounding how Israel managed to embed explosives in numerous devices and subsequently detonate them remotely are not entirely understood. However, prevailing theories suggest that an Israeli spy agency engineered a supply chain attack, employing a Hungarian front company to manufacture gadgets with PETN-laced batteries and inserting metal ball bearings inside the casings of pagers to enhance the destructive power—posing as a credible supplier to distribute these throughout Lebanon.
The underlying reasons for this assault remain speculative, though they likely relate to Israel’s increase in hostilities with Hezbollah amid the devastating conflict in Gaza after an October 7 onslaught by Hamas. Bruce Schneier, an author and scholar specializing in security and surveillance, who also teaches cybersecurity policy at Harvard Kennedy School, emphasizes the psychological impact of using communication devices as weapons—an extension of Israel’s prior cyberattacks on enemy digital resources. He discusses how such tactics foster a deep-seated mistrust in every surviving mode of communication and coordination among Israel’s foes.
“Lacking trust in their smartphones, they revert to older, simpler devices, but even those are compromised. What are they left with?” questions Schneier. “Communication becomes arduous, and everything is less efficient.”
Schneier further analyzes the paralyzing fear caused by these incidents, likening it to a continuous “burden” on Hezbollah as a group. “Lots of actions are off-limits if confidence in communication is shaken,” he notes. He likens the overall effect to the situation of Osama bin Laden, who, towards the end of his life, was largely isolated, depending solely on human couriers for any outside communication.
Paranoia has long been implanted among the citizens of Lebanon. The usage of pager- and walkie-talkie-based weapons comes after several warnings by Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah about the espionage risks posed by smartphones, considering the renowned hacking capabilities of Israeli intelligence. “Please break it, bury it, lock it up in a metal box,” Nasrallah urged in one session. On another occasion, he stood before a Lebanese audience displaying an iPhone image marked with a prohibition sign, warning, “These are deadly spies.” It has beenreported that cell phones are prohibited in Hezbollah gatherings, with pagers being the preferred communication tool.
With Hezbollah’s shift to older communication devices, the fear of harm or even death has increased. This dread has extended to all electronic communication devices; for instance, at a recent funeral for the casualties of a recent attack, attendees were requested to detach batteries from their mobile devices.
The promotion of distrust in communication devices within Hezbollah might be a deliberate strategy by Israel referred to as “preparing the battle space” in anticipation of forthcoming military actions against Lebanon, suggests Thomas Rid, a Johns Hopkins University professor who studies strategic studies and focuses on disinformation and influence tactics. Rid likens these tactics to those used to target command-and-control infrastructures, such as the US’s 2003 efforts to dismantle Iraq’s fiber-optic communications detailed in Michael Hayden’s book Playing to the Edge. This strategy aims to force reliance on more vulnerable radio communications.
“This is an escalation of attacks on command-and-control systems,” comments Rid. “The message is clear: ‘We’re not simply infiltrating and spying on these devices; we’re actually destroying them, undermining any trust you may have in your military command and future communication tools.’”
For Israeli intelligence, Rid suggests, the operation significantly revalidates their strength and reputation after the prior unsuccess in stopping Hamas’ operations on October 7. “This operation goes a long way in terms of demonstrating that they are, perhaps, the most creative and the most ruthless intelligence establishment on the planet right now,” he states.
The repercussions of Israel’s bold strike are not only felt by Hezbollah but also cause widespread fear and confusion among civilians. The French-Lebanese security expert Kobeissi, currently leading the tech company Symbolic Software in Paris, reports the circulation of false rumors and deceptive videos among the Lebanese, including claims like iPhones exploding. “People are losing their minds, because it’s scary as hell, and that’s the intention,” he explains. “You can’t just consider the impact on Hezbollah’s communication and functionality without acknowledging the terror it instills in nearby civilians.”
Kobeissi believes the incidental harm from the strike will affect regional perceptions of Western technology for a long time. “The average Lebanese person does not grasp the concept of a supply chain attack,” he remarks. “What they understand is that a device from a nation allied with America—a device upon which they depend—might just explode. Unfortunately, the broader implications of such actions globally weren’t adequately weighed by the Israeli intelligence.”
Beyond the trust issues, the attack denotes a new level of aggression, notes Harvard’s Bruce Schneier. As he points out, this type of aggressive act, now demonstrated, is sure to recur, potentially even prompting retaliatory acts against Israel itself.
“It’s not just Hezbollah that should worry. If I were Ukraine, I’d be worried. If I were Russia, I’d worry. If I were Israel, I’d worry. This doesn’t just go one way,” he says. “Now we all live in a world of connected devices that can be weaponized in unexpected ways. What does that world look like?”
