Nine people, including two girls, were killed and 2,8000 injured in Lebanon today, after hundreds of fences used by Hezbollah fighters exploded across the country.
The sudden and unexpected wave of detonations, which began around 15:45 local time (1345 GMT) and lasted for about an hour, caused widespread panic and chaos in the southern suburbs of Beirut, the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon.
Iran-backed Hezbollah has been using pagers instead of mobile phones because the latter can be tracked and used to pinpoint missile strikes that have killed its commanders.
David Kennedy, a former US National Security Agency intelligence analyst, told CNN: ‘It is possible that Israel has a human operation … in Hezbollah … The fence will be planted with explosives and will only detonate when a certain message is received.
The remains of what is believed to be a fence carried by Lebanese militants exploded earlier today.
A fence used by Hezbollah members for vital communications exploded this afternoon, killing hundreds
‘The complexity required to pull this off is incredible. It will require many different intelligence and execution components.
‘Human intelligence (HUMINT) will be the main method used to pull this off, along with intercepting the supply chain to make fence modifications.’
No one has claimed responsibility for the mass incident, although Hezbollah and the Lebanese government have pointed the finger at Israel, which has yet to comment.
There are currently two main theories as to how detonation occurs.
One suggested the fence was loaded with explosives, and was set off by remote access and another theory suggested a cyber security breach caused the fence’s lithium ion batteries to overheat and explode.
A source close to Hizbullah said the incident was a direct result of an ‘Israeli breach’ of communications, although this has not been confirmed.
A different official said the cause of the explosion was likely a lithium battery powering the fence.
While lithium-ion batteries are commonly used in consumer electronics, they can overheat and catch fire – even exploding in some cases.
This is due to a phenomenon called thermal runaway, a chemical chain reaction that occurs when the battery undergoes rapid temperature changes, which is triggered when the battery is overheated, punctured or overcharged.
As this chemical reaction progresses, it can cause a sudden release of energy that can cause the device to explode with intense force and heat.
Police officers inspect a car with an exploded fence, Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, September 17, 2024
Lebanese military sources suggested that the devices were detonated as part of an Israeli attack.
It is possible that Israeli forces or some other actor could infiltrate the device and remotely charge the battery, causing a thermal runaway.
Fences often use unencrypted communication channels and outdated software, making them very easy targets for attacks.
A one-way fence is a passive receiver and therefore cannot be tracked, but when a message is sent it activates every fence transmitter in the area.
By hijacking broadcast signals, an adversary can infect every fence in the network simultaneously.
A virus may have been planted in Hezbollah’s fence network and allowed to lie dormant in the device until it spread.
This malware may have been triggered or activated remotely at programmed times.
The video shows that the device appears to receive a message moments before the device explodes.
This signal can be used to trigger the explosion or it can be used to ensure that the fighters are holding the device when it explodes.
If this explosion is the product of a cyberattack, it is a rare case of cyberwarfare that causes disruption to physical infrastructure.
Earlier this year, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah urged members of the organization to return to using pagers for important communications, arguing that modern smartphones would be more vulnerable to cyber attacks by Israeli forces.
But like cell phones and many other consumer electronics, pagers rely on rechargeable lithium batteries to operate.
Battery fires can burn up to 590 degrees Celsius (1,100 F) when ignited.
Israel has used this method in the past, most notably in the 1996 assassination of Hamas bomb leader Yahya Ayyash.
Shin Bet, the shadow intelligence agency, filled Ayyash’s phone with 15grams of RDX explosives, while he was on the phone with his father.
Although Israel has a long-standing policy of never confirming or denying the alleged killings, former Shin Bet officer Carmi Gillon confirmed the story in 2012.
