A region fearing all-out war was brought to the brink by a legion of beepers and walkie talkies.
Waves of explosions in supermarkets and streets across Lebanon in successive attacks over two days echoed from Beirut southward in a selective effort, largely attributed to Israel, to hamper the militant and political group Hezbollah.
At least 12 people were killed, including an 11-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl, and more than 2,700 were injured in the coordinated explosions of pagers belonging to Hezbollah members. A day later, the walkie talkies were hit by a similar attack that killed another 25 people and injured hundreds more.
Israel has not directly claimed responsibility for the operation, but Hezbollah placed blame squarely on its adversary, and two US officials told NBC News that Israel was behind the attack.
From Russia to Jordan, countries warned that this was a dangerous escalation after months of simmering conflict in the Middle East.
On Thursday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called the attacks an act of war against Lebanon. Israel flew fighter jets over Beirut during his speech, shaking the capital with sonic booms, while the IDF and Hezbollah exchanged fire on the border.
NBC News looks at what the operation might have aimed to accomplish and what might come next.
WHY NOW?
Israel announced a new war goal Monday night: the safe return of residents displaced from their homes by months of fighting with Hezbollah on the northern border with Lebanon.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also warned the United States that the only way to achieve that goal was “through military action.”
The growing fear and expectation was that some form of escalation was probably imminent. Then the beepers exploded.
It was initially unclear why Israel carried out the pager attack on Tuesday and whether it was an opportunistic operation or something more strategic, two US officials and a Western official told NBC News on Wednesday.
And despite the second wave of walkie-talkie attacks and the airstrikes that followed, a former senior Israeli security official told NBC News that the attacks were opportunistic and not part of a broader strategic offensive.
This was the sound the beeps made before they exploded, killing more than 30 people and injuring another 3,000. To see more from Telemundo, visit
The timing was not a strategic decision, but a necessity, because it became a kind of use it or lose it situation, the former official said. Israel achieved tactical success, which is substantial, but it is still tactical.
The official went on to say that Israel is not going to war with Lebanon as of now.
The offensive follows months of tensions between Hezbollah and Israel that began shortly after the October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas and Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip. Both Hamas and Hezbol have the backing of Iran.
In fact, gains from device operations would be more effective as an opening salvo in a broader war, Michael Horowitz, the head of intelligence at Le Beck International, a security and risk management consultancy, told NBC News, by incapacitating key operations and disrupt communications while sowing internal distrust.
WHAT CAN YOU GAIN WITH AN OPERATION OF THIS TYPE?
Israel could benefit on several different levels from such a massive and shocking operation, Horowitz said.
The first is the physical damage caused to Hezbollah militants: Lebanon’s health minister said the flood of patients flooding hospitals across the country, including civilians, had wounds mainly on their hands and faces.
But disabling so many pagers is likely to significantly disrupt the group’s ability to communicate and could drive large numbers of Hezbollah commanders off the field.
Those devices, which could have been used for emergency communication, particularly in the event of a full-scale war with Israel, would also have been distributed among key commanders, from the lowest-ranking field officer to the highest echelon of the group. Horowitz said. We can expect that many of them will no longer be able to carry out their military duties.
The two series of beeper explosions left 32 dead and 3,200 injured.
Although the exact details of the operation remain unclear, the attacks could indicate that Israel knew the ins and outs of Hezbollah’s supply chain and managed to infiltrate it, Horowitz said.
As a security breach, it can’t be much worse, he added.
The attacks are a huge blow to Hezbollah, said Mohanad Hage Ali, deputy director of research at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. A security breach of this scale could seriously damage group morale, he said.
This was simply an unprecedented opportunity to damage the organization and traumatize its members, Hage Ali said.
Hezbollah will now have to review its internal security, pursue potential collaborators and assess how its supply chains may have been compromised, Horowitz said. That takes a long time, he added.
AND NOW, WHAT NEXT?
In an already volatile region, pager and walkie-talkie attacks have added a long-feared arsonist in a surprising way.
Jordan’s foreign minister on Wednesday accused Israel of pushing the entire region into the abyss of a regional war.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian called the attack a sign of the decline of humanity and the prevalence of barbarism and criminality. The Kremlin warned that the region was in an explosive state, while its Foreign Ministry called the pager attacks an act of hybrid warfare aimed at provoking a larger war.
Hezbollah promised a difficult reckoning for what it called a massacre in a statement Wednesday, while vowing to continue fighting in support of the people and resistance of Gaza.
The group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, described the attacks as an act of war, promising retaliation, although he did not specify when or how the counterattack would be carried out.
But first, the group will have to review its internal security and take defensive measures, Horowitz said. You don’t take unnecessary risks when you are taken by surprise, as Hezbollah just did, he added. The group is prepared to respond, but the response may take time.
Hage Ali said that if Israel were interested in a broad military operation, an attack immediately after this operation would have made sense. As time passes, the organization may readjust after this shock.
An Israeli army commander in the north said on Wednesday that troops were in maximum readiness.
The mission is clear: we are determined to change the security reality as soon as possible, said the head of the Northern Command of the Israel Defense Forces, Major General Ori Gordin.
The IDF announced the attacks on the Israel-Lebanon border on Thursday, as Hezbollah began attacking northern Israel as well. Two soldiers were killed in northern Israel, the IDF said.
The United States and others have pressed both sides to avoid any significant escalation. Washington said it was not aware of the “incident” beforehand, but Ben Rhodes, President Barack Obama’s deputy national security adviser, told the BBC on Wednesday that the “pretty indiscriminate use of violence” in the pager attacks was not It was something the United States would have wanted.
“This probably puts Israel in a position that the United States does not want it to be in, in terms of militarizing and potentially escalating the conflict in Lebanon,” Rhodes said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged de-escalation during his remarks in Paris, where he met the French foreign minister on Thursday. Blinken told reporters that both the United States and France “don’t want to see any escalatory actions by either side that would make it even more difficult.”
“France and the United States are united in calling for restraint and urging de-escalation when it comes to the Middle East in general,” Blinken said. “And when it comes to Lebanon in particular, we continue to work towards a ceasefire for Gaza.”
This article was originally published in English on NBC News. click here to read it.