Nine people were killed and thousands were injured across Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday when pagers belonging to Hezbollah members exploded in a cyberattack allegedly carried out by Israel. A Hezbollah official called it the “biggest security breach” since the war in Israel began just under a year ago.

Around 3:30 p.m. in Lebanon, the pagers received a message that appeared to be from Hezbollah leadership, which caused them to beep for 10 seconds before detonating. A Hezbollah official said some felt the devices heat up and disposed of them before they exploded. Others were carrying the pagers in their pockets or hands. The explosions caused major injuries to more than 2,750 people, with 200 in critical condition, Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad said.

Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, lost an eye and suffered wounds to his other eye when his pager exploded. Two of his bodyguards also suffered injuries from their pagers.

The son of Hezbollah lawmaker, Ali Ammar, was killed in an explosion; the 10-year-old daughter of another member died when her father’s pager exploded as she was standing by his side.

Hezbollah announced that 12 members were killed on Tuesday, including those who died in a separate Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah blamed Israel and promised to retaliate.

“We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression,” the group said in a statement, adding that Israel “will certainly receive its just punishment for this sinful aggression.”

Traces to Israel

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah restricted the use of cell phones by members of the group earlier this year, due to concerns that the phones would be vulnerable to Israeli surveillance. Consequently, the group ordered 5,000 pagers from Gold Apollo, a Taiwan-based company, as a means to communicate and evade Israeli location tracking.

Gold Apollo said it did not manufacture the 5,000 pagers, but that they came from bac Consulting, a company addressed to a private residence in Budapest, Hungary. According to Gold Apollo founder and president, Hsu Ching-kuang, payments from bac were “strange” and came from the Middle East.

Lebanese security sources claim the explosive devices were planted in the pagers by Israel’s Mossad spy agency “at the production level.”

“The Mossad injected a board inside of the device that has explosive material that receives a code,” one of the sources said. “It’s very hard to detect it through any means.”

As of now, Israel has not formally claimed responsibility for attack. But three U.S. officials and a former Israeli official told Axios it was a secret Israeli operation.

The former Israeli official said Israel planned to use the booby-trapped pagers as a surprise attack in the event of an all-out war with Hezbollah. The U.S. officials said Israel was concerned when Hezbollah operatives recently raised concerns about the pagers, so it decided to carry out the attack early.

“It was a use it or lose it moment,” one U.S. official said.

Cyber Warfare

“This would easily be the biggest counterintelligence failure that Hezbollah has had in decades,” former deputy national intelligence officer on the Middle East, Jonathan Panikoff, said.

Former national intelligence officer Paul Pillar said, “It demonstrates Israel’s ability to infiltrate its adversaries in a remarkably dramatic way.”

The Israeli Mossad is known for its expertise in cyberwarfare, and this attack brings a new dimension to the war in the Middle East. It could set a precedent for the future.

Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has warned about the threat cyberterrorism could play on the world scene. In 1999, Mr. Flurry said cybersecurity could be the United States’ “Achilles’ heel.”

“Exploiting this vulnerable point could trigger the greatest shock in the history of warfare!” Mr. Flurry repeated in 2005.

Hezbollah’s pagers exploding is just a small example of cyberwarfare. To learn more, read Mr. Flurry’s article “America’s Achilles’ Heel—and Germany.”