On Tuesday, in the pockets of Hezbollah commanders, soldiers and allies, hundreds of small pagers exploded, leaving 11 dead and 2,700 injured. The day after, the group’s walkie-talkies were also targeted and blown up, bringing the death toll to 37.  

Hezbollah is both a militant group and a political party with considerable power in Lebanon. As with Hamas in Gaza, the group is backed by Iran and has declared its intention of the destruction of the state of Israel. 

Multiple U.S. defense officials, speaking to news outlets on the condition of anonymity, have said that Israel was behind the attack. Israel for its part has neither confirmed nor denied any part in the explosions.

News outlets like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times conducted their own investigations into the source of the pagers. 

The investigations found that Israel was able to tamper with the devices by gaining access to Hezbollah’s supply chain through a network of shell companies. 

Hezbollah had recently made the switch to pagers from regular cell phones in an effort to hide location data from Israeli intelligence officers.

For the last 11 months, Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging rocket and drone attacks. The new wave of fighting began last October when Hezbollah began firing rockets and drones into Northern Israel, in protest of the war in Gaza with its ally Hamas. 

Some officials warn that the conflict could develop into a larger war, if intermediaries such as the U.S. fail to de-escalate the conflict. 

Initially, a Taiwanese company called Gold Apollo was accused of manufacturing the exploding devices. However, soon after, Gold Apollo reported that another company called B.A.C Consulting was the one who acquired the contract to manufacture the pagers. 

B.A.C is a Hungarian telecommunications company that was likely a front for Israeli intelligence officers, although it did take on ordinary clients as well.

A small amount of military-grade explosives, around two to four grams, was likely placed inside the pagers by Israel and hooked up to the battery of the device. The detonation signal came disguised as a message from top Hezbollah leaders and at 3:30 p.m., the devices exploded in the pockets and hands of their users.

Many citizens suffered injuries in public spaces when the devices exploded. Some human rights activists say that the attack breached international treaties to which Israel has agreed to abide. 

One of these treaties is the United Nations Article 7(2) of the Amended Protocol II of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. The article refers to the use of booby traps, which some interpret to ban the targeting of objects used in everyday life that would attract the use of ordinary citizens.

Israel and Hezbollah have both declared they will continue launching strikes at each other. Many are worried about a larger war between Hezbollah and Israel if tensions continue to stay high.

Israel has stated it’s determined to bring about conditions where thousands of its citizens can return to their homes near the border with Lebanon.