Israeli pager attack

2024-09-19

This is a summary document on my views on the Israeli pager attack on Hezbolla in September 2024. After taking part in many internet discussions about moral and legal side of the attack, I got frustrated and decided to write up all relevant points in one document — here.

What is Hezbolla

• Hezbolla have started a war in Israel on October 8th, 2024, right after Hamas have massacred and raped 1200 Israeli civilians. This attack took place before any Israeli military action against Hezbolla or Hamas.
• Hezbolla have been undiscriminately firing hundreds of rockets at Israeli civilians. There are many casualties, both Jewish and Arab. Widespread fires. Half the country had to be evacuated.
• Hezbolla have, over many years, performed many terror attacks targeting Isareli, American and other civilians. They have also been involved in drug trafficking, human trafficking, and other criminal activities.
• Hezbolla is de-facto one of military branches of Iran, and is funded by Iran.
• Hezbolla have illegally occupied southern Lebanon for many years, and have been using it as a base to launch attacks. It has been brutalising the local population as well. It acts as a government of a tyrannical regime.
• Hezbolla literally means "warrior or Allah", and proclaims itself as islamist.
• Hezbolla have been using human shields, and have been hiding in civilian areas, including schools, hospitals, and mosques. It has a wide network of tunnels and bunkers and is a very well armed and trained military force.
• Hezbolla openly states that it's goal is not to change Israel policies, but to destroy the country. Hezbolla leaders openly call for massacre of all Jews across the world, Israeli and not.

If you don't consider Hezbolla a terror oranisation and it's members a legitimate military target not only for Israelis, but for any moral person in the world, I don't think I can help you.

The attack

Israel have used cell signals to guide missile in assasinations of terrorists. Because of that, Hezbolla leadership decided to use pagers for communication instead. Since pagers only receive wireless signals, they cannot be used to guide rockets. On Tuesday, September 17th, pagers of Hezbolla members exploded all over Lebanon on the same instant. On the next day, their Walkie talkies exploded too. Several thousands of Hezbolla members have been injured, about a dozen or more have been killed.

• Explosions were too big to have been caused by pager battery, but still pretty small in scale. Many videos of the attack are available across the internet. In almost all of the videos, if there are bystanders present at the scene, they are completely undamaged by the explosion. Of course, if an innocent bystander was holding a pager in their hands or in similar proximity, he would also be injured or killed.
• Virtually everybody agrees that explosions were caused by a supply chain attack. Israel have found a way to put explosives into the pagers before they reached Hezbolla.
• Hospitals and other emergency responders also use pagers for communication. However, individuals don't buy pagers themselves. They are purchased in bulk by organisation and then distributed to their members. This means that the only people who had pagers were Hezbolla members.
• A supply chain attack against a particular organisation would only affect members of this organisation. It would not affect other people who use the same product. This is why it is called a "supply chain attack" and not a "product attack".
• It is obvious that Hezbolla members were the overwhelming majority of the victims. So it's obvious that Israel haven't put explosives into pagers addressed for hospitals or firefighters.
• It is evident that some civilians were harmed and killed in this attack. Estimates are around under 10 at this moment. It is obvious to all observers that 99% of the victims were Hezbolla members. The ratio of civilian to combatant casualties is about 1:100 or higher.

Attack objectives

• Such supply chain attack requires very significant resources.
• Even if you picture Israel as a genocidal and evil, there is no other military objective for which such an attack would have been an effective use of resources.
• If you think that Israel wanted to cause terror and destruction among general population, they could have just bombed Lebanon or used a hundred other cheaper and more effective ways to do so.
• Therefore, if you think that Israel's objective in this attack has been anything other than incapacitating Hezbolla members, an assumption that Israeli military is evil is not sufficient. You also have to assume that Israeli military is extremely stupid and incompetent.
• Israeli military have been called a lot of things, but never stupid and incompetent, even by it's worst enemies.
• Therefore, the only objective this attack could have had was incapacitating Hezbolla members.

Laws of war and Geneva conventions

• Hezbolla members often fight not without identifying uniform and embed themselves in civilian population. This directly contradicts the Geneva conventions and mean that they forfeit relevant protections.
• Hezbolla is military organisation. It main purpose is combat. It's members are involved in continous combat function (CCF). They are legitimate military targets even when not participating in active combat.
• Geneva conventions declare principle of distinction. Attacks need to be targeted at legitimate combat targets. However, the concept of targeting doesn't mean that civilians will not be harmed or killed. Here is where a next principle comes in.
• Geneva conventions also declare principle of proportionality. It means that the expected harm to civilians must not be excessive in relation to the expected military advantage. This is a very complex and subjective principle, and it's often hard to determine if it was violated or not.
• Once again, Israel is in active war with Hezbolla. Millions of Israeli civilians are in active danger. "Military objective" is not only to kill Hezbolla members, but to stop Hezbolla from doing this harm.
• Attack that incapacitates thousand of enemy combatants is a very significant military advantage. It's hard to imagine a more significant one.
• Attack with a small explosive charge that doesn't harm any civilians is a very small harm to civilians. It's hard to imagine a smaller one.
• A typical ratio of civilian to combatant casualties in a war is 9:1. This means that the pager attack is 1,000 more targeted than an average attack in a war.
• Terrorism refers to use of violence or acts of violence targeted at civilians to achieve a political advantage through intimidation.
• Intimidation has to be the primary objective of an act of war to be considered a terror attack. Almost any act of war, be it a bomb or a single shot fired, terririses and intimidates peaceful population. It does not become an act of terror because of that.

Protocol on Mines, Booby-Traps and Other Devices

Israel have signed a treaty against booby trapped devices. Some people have claimed that this attack violates this treaty. I will cite wikipedia article here.

[The treaty] prohibits the use of booby traps that are "attached to or associated with" any of the following features:

(a) internationally recognized protective emblems, signs or signals;

(b) sick, wounded or dead persons;

(c) burial or cremation sites or graves;

(d) medical facilities, medical equipment, medical supplies or medical transportation;

(e) children's toys or other portable objects or products specially designed for the feeding, health, hygiene, clothing or education of children;

(f) food or drink;

(g) kitchen utensils or appliances except in military establishments, military locations or military supply depots;

(h) objects clearly of a religious nature;

(i) historic monuments, works of art or places of worship which constitute the cultural or spiritual heritage of peoples; and

(j) animals or their carcasses.

• The pagers are communication devices used by combatants. They don't fall into any of these categories.
• Some people, like The Guardian, claim that this attack violates the treaty. This means that these people either cannot bother to read the very short wikipedia article (not even the treaty itself), or are intentionally lying.

Conclusion

Israeli pager attack does not constitute an act of terror or a war crime in any way or form. It is one of the most targeted attacks in history of warfare, especially given it's scale.

If you disagree with one of the points above, please free to open an issue or contact me otherwise. I will gladly add prooflinks or expand on points which are contested.