It may be years before the full story is told of how the coordinated explosions of thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah were orchestrated. But, even without Israel publicly admitting responsibility, it is clear that the attack must have been carefully planned however uncertain its consequences. Experts generally believe a small amount of stable explosive was carefully implanted into each sabotaged device.
Alan Woodward, a professor of cybersecurity at Surrey University, said: There wouldn't need to be much explosive, as proximity to a human body means it would cause injury even if it was a few grams. The first wave of explosions... appear to have been triggered by a special message from Hezbollah leadership, implying, Woodward argued, a specific modification of the pagers' embedded software.
Eyewitnesses say the pager bleeped, then paused, then detonated, giving enough time for them to be brought closer to the owner's face, which is why Lebanese doctors reported treating multiple hand and eye injuries after the blast.
Twelve people were killed and about 2,800 injured in Tuesday's explosions, and 14 died in a second wave of blasts that followed on Wednesday when walkie-talkies starting blowing up. This suggests the attacks amounted to a concerted attempt to disrupt Hezbollah's communications.
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