Putin could make millions of iPhones blow up without warning, if my fears are right, writes MARK ALMOND
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And there could be consequences for us, too. Western democracies will already be assessing what this novel form of warfare means for them – and how they might be able to copy Israel's methods.
History teaches us that no new military technique remains a monopoly of its inventor for long. How long before Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping works out how to make millions of iPhones around the world burst into flames in the pockets of their foes?
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Lebanon is hit by MORE explosions as 'Hezbollah walkie talkies' detonate across country - a day after pager bomb attacks
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Walkie talkies used by Hezbollah fighters have detonated across Lebanon, killing three and wounding hundreds of people including mourners at a funeral, witnesses and security sources have reported.
The second wave of carnage comes a day after thousands of exploding pagers used by the group left almost 3,000 people injured and a dozen dead, including civilians and children.
Security sources have now confirmed that hand-held radios were purchased by Hezbollah five months ago, at around the same time as the compromised pagers.
The latest explosions this afternoon have hit the country's south and the capital Beirut, where dramatic time-lapse video shows multiple plumes of smoke rising above the skyline in different locations almost simultaneously.
Multiple explosions occurred at the site of a funeral for three Hezbollah members and a child killed by exploding pagers the day before, according to reports.
Lebanon's foreign minister has today warned that yesterday's pager blasts are an omen of a widening war.
Hezbollah said on Wednesday it had attacked Israeli artillery positions with rockets in the first strike at its arch-foe since pager blasts wounded thousands of its members in Lebanon and raised the prospect of a wider Middle East war.
Israel's spy agency Mossad, which has a long history of sophisticated operations on foreign soil, planted explosives inside pagers imported by Hezbollah months before Tuesday's detonations, a senior Lebanese security source and another source told Reuters.
The death toll rose to 12, including two children, Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said on Wednesday. Tuesday's attack wounded nearly 3,000 people, including many of the militant group's fighters and Iran's envoy to Beirut.
A Taiwanese pager maker denied that it had produced the pager devices which exploded in an audacious attack that raised the prospect of a full-scale war between the Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel.
Gold Apollo said the devices were made by under licence by a company called BAC, based in Hungary's capital Budapest.
There was no immediate word on when Hezbollah had launched its latest rocket attack, but normally the group announces such strikes shortly after carrying them out, suggesting it fired at the Israeli artillery positions on Wednesday.
Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel, whose military declined to comment on the blasts.
The two sides have been engaged in cross-border warfare since the Gaza conflict erupted last October, fuelling fears of a wider Middle East conflict that could drag in the United States and Iran.
Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi accused Israel of pushing the Middle East to the brink of a regional war by orchestrating a dangerous escalation on many fronts.
'Hezbollah wants to avoid an all-out war. It still wants to avoid one. But given the scale, the impact on families, on civilians, there will be pressure for a stronger response,' said Mohanad Hage Ali of the Carnegie Middle East Center.
Hezbollah, Iran's most powerful proxy in the Middle East, said in a statement it would continue to support Hamas in Gaza and Israel should await a response to the pager 'massacre' which left fighters and others bloodied, hospitalised or dead.
One Hezbollah official said the detonation was the group's 'biggest security breach' in its history.
Вот статья о взрыве вейпа в самолёте. Представляете, что случилось бы если бы на борту авиалайнера взлетевшего или садящегося вчера в Ливане оказался боец Хезболы или его родственник? Полагаете это остановило бы Израиль?
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Terrifying video shows chaos after 'vape explosion' on packed easyJet flight with Brit passengers leaping down emergency slide at Crete airport
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This is the moment chaos ensued on an easyJet flight from Crete to London Gatwick after a 'vape explosion' forced a hasty evacuation before takeoff.
Terrifying video showed chaotic scenes on Tuesday as passengers scrambled into the central aisle before disembarking via the inflatable slide, surrounded by officials.
Witnesses said 'a very large red flash and flame' caused the commotion before panicked passengers started screaming 'bomb!'
Staff believe e-cigarettes and a power bank inside a carry-on likely caused 'popping noises' and 'thick black smoke' to fill the cabin during boarding.
All 236 on board were forced back off the plane, guided by emergency services, and passengers were left to wait some nine hours for the next flight home.
Video obtained by MailOnline shows a passenger clutching a bag and a phone as they were led to exit the plane at Crete airport via the emergency slide.
Officials in hi-vis jackets stood by to help passengers back off the plane at Heraklion.
Passengers were safely off the plane within 'minutes' but the flight to London was cancelled.
A flight was later chartered, leaving for London after 11pm.
Passengers described their horror as a fire broke out on board the plane, fearing for the worst.
'Fire and acrid smoke billowed from the bag, popping exploding noises, smoke filled the cabin around the bag,' one eyewitness said.
A passenger told MailOnline they heard someone asking 'what is that what is that' as she took her seat, seconds before the explosion occurred.
Passengers were 'screaming bomb and clattering to get out' as panic broke out, with some saying a 'lady with a vape in her bum bag was waving it around as smoke started to come out'.
One said the woman with the bag was British and tried to leave the plane, asking people to get out of the way.
But as her bag caught fire, she dropped it in the aisle as people were still trying to take their seats.
There was a fire scorch mark left on floor, but travellers were later allowed back on plane to collect belongings.
MailOnline understands no customers suffered burn injuries from the explosion, but one passenger suffered a friction burn from the evacuation slide.
'EasyJet have kept us up to date with the replacement flight, which we are boarding now, they gave us a voucher to get food,' another said.
'All the staff have been very helpful and it was as painless as it could be given the circumstances.'
Police forces rushed to the scene to investigate the incident.
A spokesperson told MailOnline: 'easyJet can confirm that flight EZY8216 from Heraklion to London Gatwick was evacuated during boarding prior to departure, due to a fire in a passenger's cabin bag.
'Fire services attended the aircraft and cabin crew evacuated the aircraft in line with procedures.
'Customers are currently being looked after in the terminal and a replacement aircraft and crew have been arranged to fly customers home later today. Safety is our highest priority.'
Is Netanyahu paving the way for all-out war with Hezbollah? How Israeli PM 'widened war goals' hours before pager blasts and is poised to 'sack defence chief who pushed for ceasefire'
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The Middle East is on the brink after a mass attack on Hezbollah saw thousands of its militants' pagers explode - just hours after Israel's prime minister vowed to step up military action against Lebanon.
While Israel has not confirmed that it was behind the pager blasts - which left some 2,800 Hezbollah members and civilians injured and nine dead in Lebanon and Syria - several security sources have blamed the IDF and Mossad spy agency for the attack.
Hostile rhetoric on both sides was building even before the blasts amid ongoing cross-border fire between Lebanon and Israel over the past year, as Hezbollah continues to pummel Israel in a show of support to its allies Hamas in Gaza.
Meanwhile, reports have emerged that Benjamin Netanyahu is poised to sack his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, who is widely seen as the most vocal government minister pushing for a ceasefire agreement in Gaza to free Israeli hostages.
This means that the prospect of a ceasefire in Gaza appears evermore distant at the same time as tensions on Israel's northern border are spiking, with Netanyahu seemingly pushing ahead for broader escalation.
Over the weekend, Israel's premier called for a 'change in the balance of forces on our northern border,' amid the near-daily attacks by Hezbollah, while pledging to do 'whatever is necessary' to return evacuated residents to their homes.
Israel has been ramping up preparations for a war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, taking on the Iran-backed militant group to improve security in its northern region.
Netanyahu frames it as an existential war for Israel and has argued that now is not the time to show weakness, defying calls for restraint and compromise, including from within his war cabinet.
The PM's office has been putting out the message that while he is pushing for greater confrontation with Hezbollah, retired military general Gallant is against it, according to Israeli outlet Haaertz.
Michael Milshtein, a leading Palestinian studies scholar at Tel Aviv University, said that Gallant 'doesn't want a broad escalation', but that Netanyahu is 'considering' it.
In an expansion of Israel's official war goals on Tuesday, Netanyahu announced that his forces would now aim to halt Hezbollah's attacks in the north to allow tens of thousands of residents to return to their homes along the border.
As news of the plans emerged, Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to the Biden administration warned Netanyahu against initiating a wider war against Lebanon, sources told Axios.
On the same day, Gallant told the United States military envoy visiting the region that 'military action' is the 'only way left to ensure the return of Israel's northern communities.'
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Israel unleashed pager attack earlier than expected in 'use it or lose it moment' amid fears Hezbollah were about to foil the plot, report claims
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Israel carried out a pager bomb attack that left roughly 2,800 people injured and 12 dead in Lebanon and Syria yesterday fearing that Hezbollah was on the cusp of foiling their deadly plot, a new report has claimed.
Pager devices recently introduced by the group to beef up security exploded en masse yesterday, causing chaotic scenes and devastation in Lebanese hospitals. Israel is believed to have orchestrated the attack but has not claimed responsibility.
Security sources believe Mossad, Israel's spy agency, intercepted devices en route to Lebanon months ago and embedded explosives to be remotely detonated as part of a plan to cripple the Iranian proxy group.
Still, questions remain as to why the attack was carried out on Tuesday. One American official told Axios it was 'a use it or lose it moment' as Hezbollah were understood to be getting close to uncovering Israeli espionage.
Israel's domestic security agency said only on Tuesday that it had recently foiled a plot by Hezbollah to assassinate a former senior defence official in the coming days.
Three US officials told Axios that Israel decided to blow up the pager devices carried by Hezbollah members on Tuesday as they feared the group was close to uncovering their operation.
A security source told Reuters that up to three grams of explosives had been hidden in the new pagers and had gone 'undetected' by Hezbollah for months.
One senior Lebanese security source told the news agency he believes the devices had been modified by Mossad 'at the production level' before arriving in Lebanon.
'The Mossad injected a board inside of the device that has explosive material that receives a code. It's very hard to detect it through any means,' the source said.
Hezbollah earlier this year ordered thousands of pagers to conduct communications after leader Hassan Nasrallah declared smartphones would be more susceptible to cyber attacks by Israeli forces.
As many as 5,000 devices are believed to have affected, though not all went off on Tuesday, according to the Lebanese source.
The source claimed Hezbollah ordered the pagers from a Taiwanese company called Gold Apollo, but executives there said the devices were actually manufactured and sold under licence by BAC Consulting in Budapest, Hungary.
Elijah J. Magnier, a Brussels-based senior political risk analyst, later said he spoke with Hezbollah members who had examined pagers that failed to explode.
The pagers appeared to receive a coded error message sent to all the devices that caused them to vibrate and beep for some 10 seconds.
When the user pressed the pager's button to cancel the alert, the explosives were detonated - a design that would ensure the pager was being held by the user at the time of the blast to inflict maximum damage.
The months-long operation by Mossad and the IDF represents an unprecedented security breach for Hezbollah, which vowed to exact revenge on Israel and continue its support for ally Hamas amid the ongoing war in Gaza.
'The resistance will continue today, like any other day, its operations to support Gaza, its people and its resistance which is a separate path from the harsh punishment that the criminal enemy (Israel) should await in response to Tuesday's massacre,' a statement read.
Hsu Ching-kuang (L), head of Taiwanese company Gold Apollo, speaks to the media outside the company's office in New Taipei City on September 18, 2024. Taiwanese company Gold Apollo on September 18 denied a report that it had produced thousands of explosive-packed pagers.
The string of detonations, which began around 3:30pm local time yesterday and continued for roughly an hour, gave way to widespread panic and chaos across Beirut's southern suburbs, southern Lebanon and even in neighbouring Syria.
Shocking video footage showed how unsuspecting targets reached for their pagers, only to be blown off their feet by an unexpected and violent explosion.
Victims were seen writhing in agony with hideous injuries to their faces, abdomens and even their groins in harrowing images and videos shared to social media and published on Lebanese networks.
Among the 12 people reportedly killed were two girls, aged eight and ten, and several Hezbollah fighters, as well as the son of a Lebanese MP.
Iran later confirmed its ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, sustained injuries to his face and hand.
More than 2,800 people were ultimately injured in the blasts, 300 of whom were rushed to hospital in critical condition.
Early speculation in the wake of the blasts suggested an Israeli hack could have overloaded the lithium ion batteries powering the pagers, which can burn up to 590 degrees celsius (1,100 F) when ignited.
But a slew of security sources and experts have since determined the detonations were caused by an Israeli operation that disrupted the supply chain and inserted explosives into the pagers that were subsequently remotely activated by the coded error message.
A former British Army bomb disposal officer explained that an explosive device has five main components: A container, a battery, a triggering device, a detonator and an explosive charge.
'A pager has three of those already,' explained the ex-officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he now works as a consultant with clients on the Middle East.
'You would only need to add the detonator and the charge.'
By the time of the attack, 'the battery was probably half-explosive and half-actual battery,' said Carlos Perez, director of security intelligence at TrustedSec.
Security camera footage shared to social media yesterday appeared to show the moment on Israel sent out its deadly message.
A Hezbollah member was seen confusedly lifting his shirt up at a supermarket after his pager, concealed just above his hip, began beeping and lighting up.
The device suddenly exploded, crumpling him to the floor as supermarket workers and fellow shoppers panicked and fled.
'Looking at the video, the size of the detonation is similar to that caused by an electric detonator alone or one that incorporates an extremely small, high-explosive charge,' said Sean Moorhouse, a former British Army officer and explosive ordinance disposal expert.
This signals involvement of a state actor, Moorhouse said. He added that Israel's foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad, is the most obvious suspect to have the resources to carry out such an attack.
A Hezbollah statement said: 'After examining all the facts, current data, and available information about the sinful attack that took place this afternoon, we hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression that targeted civilians too.'
Israel has declined to comment on the explosions.
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С сожалением и понятными пожеланиями, Dimitriy.
