Hopefully that's the end of it then.

Would they have known one was not on a airliner at the time of setting them off?

cruxis:

 

Would they have known one was not on a airliner at the time of setting them off?

 

Would they care?  Netanyahu (and Hamas for that matter) seems quite happy to cause collateral damage.

cruxis:

Would they have known one was not on a airliner at the time of setting them off?

Ge0rge: 

Would it have had signal?

Should have been set to flight mode. 

cddt:

 

Ge0rge: 

Would it have had signal?

 

Should have been set to flight mode. 

 

Pagers are strictly passive "one way" devices,   they don't have modes- just on or off, 

Its just like using the GPS on your phone... works fine in flight mode....

The additional intel value is huge too, all those juicy hospital intake records and discovering a bunch of people deemed important, previously unknown to them. I doubt this will be the last of events while Hezbollah is scrambling during the coming weeks/months.

PolicyGuy: Hezbollah will have to revert to couriers to deliver information & orders, which is much slower. 

It's also much more secure against interception.  Towards the end of WWII the Allies ran into increasing difficulties getting access to German comms because as the borders of the Reich contracted they moved from radio links to landlines.  One of the reasons why the Alpine Fortress deception was supposedly so effective was because few details were communicated over radio so the allies couldn't figure out it was a deception and also couldn't rely on the lack of chatter an an indication that it was a deception.

The US had the same problem in Afghanistan, the stuff the Taliban were doing was so primitive that their high-tech surveillance gear and procedures were ineffective.

In this case Mossad have burned an easily-observed comms channel and replaced it with a pretty difficult-to-observe one, an significant loss in SIGINT terms.

neb:

 

In this case Mossad have burned an easily-observed comms channel and replaced it with a pretty difficult-to-observe one, an significant loss in SIGINT terms.

 

Granted its a "swings and roundabouts" game, but pagers are impossible to track and they only contain one data point.. a return phone number, - which if they are clever is likely to be a one time number spun up for the occasion...

Exposing many thousands of Hezbollah operatives is a big win, and following it up by taking out walkie-talkies (which were the likely fall back)  says that IDF/MOssad/etc are heavily embedded into Hezbollah operations......  and will really destabilise Hezbollah... 

The uncertainty it will generate over the next 6 months is pretty invaluable, and will seriously degrade the command/control/coordination activities at a time when it needed to be fully functional to go on larger offensives against Israel...

On the whole its likely a gain for Israel.. 

wellygary:

 

Granted its a "swings and roundabouts" game, but pagers are impossible to track and they only contain one data point.. a return phone number, - which if they are clever is likely to be a one time number spun up for the occasion...

 

Exposing many thousands of Hezbollah operatives is a big win, and following it up by taking out walkie-talkies (which were the likely fall back)  says that IDF/MOssad/etc are heavily embedded into Hezbollah operations......  and will really destabilise Hezbollah... 

 

The uncertainty it will generate over the next 6 months is pretty invaluable, and will seriously degrade the command/control/coordination activities at a time when it needed to be fully functional to go on larger offensives against Israel...

 

On the whole its likely a gain for Israel.. 

 

Counter Terrorism. A taste of their own medicine.

Now we need to find a way to explode something of perpetrators of Ransomware. Esp. if they target Infrastructure, Healthcare or education.

Israel confirms strikes in southern Lebanon

Aljazeera: Israel military says 7 Hezbollah sites hit in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military has said it struck six Hezbollah “terrorist infrastructure sites” and a weapons storage facility in southern Lebanon overnight, as fears of a full-blown war grew. The air force “struck Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure sites in the areas of Chihine, Tayibe, Blida, Meiss El Jabal, Aitaroun and Kfarkela in southern Lebanon, as well as a Hezbollah weapons storage facility in the area of Khiam in southern Lebanon,” a military statement said.

kingdragonfly: The pager used doesn't use a lithium battery.

Reputable news outlets are saying it was an AR 924 pager which does in fact use lithium batteries.