[30][31][32] The Israeli intelligence agency Mossad had secretly manufactured and integrated the explosive PETN into the devices, and sold them to Hezbollah through a shell company.

[40] Hezbollah vowed retaliation,[41] launching a rocket attack on northern Israel a few days later that struck cities such as Nazareth and Kiryat Bialik, injuring several civilians.

[63] In 2015, Mossad began planting booby-trapped walkie-talkies in Lebanon, which secretly allowed Israel to monitor Hezbollah communications while holding the option to detonate them.

[74] German broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) visited BAC's official address in Budapest but found only a sheet of paper on the door with the company name; the doorbell was not answered.

[84] Facial and eye injuries were the most common effect of the explosions and, according to Tracy Chamoun, the pagers emitted a sound to encourage users to pick the devices up and lift them to their heads.

[30] The attack came just a day after the Biden administration's special envoy Amos Hochstein visited Israel and warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against provoking a major escalation in Lebanon.

[100] Lebanese Civil Defense said it responded to fires in at least 71 homes and shops,[101] including a lithium battery store in Majdel Selm, as well as 15 cars and numerous motorcycles.

[102] One compromised device was discovered inside an ambulance outside the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) and neutralized in a controlled explosion by the Lebanese Army.

[5][19] The adult son of Ali Ammar, a Hezbollah member of Parliament was killed;[115] Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati visited southern Beirut to pay his respects.

[11] On 17 September Health Minister Firass Abiad said the vast majority of those being treated in emergency rooms were in civilian clothing and their Hezbollah affiliation was unclear,[121] but casualties included elderly people as well as young children.

[10] The Iranian Ministry of Health reported that it treated 500 victims by performing more than 1,500 eye and limb surgeries, and that Iran sent 12 doctors to Lebanon to assist in treatment.

[140] On 19 September, the Lebanese Civil Aviation Authority imposed an indefinite ban on carrying pagers and walkie-talkies inside checked luggage and carry-on items on flights at Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport.

[143] John Miller, CNN's Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst, stated the message for Hezbollah was that "We can reach you anywhere, anytime, at the day and moment of our choosing and we can do it at the press of a button.

[63] Lebanese journalist Kim Ghattas, who also contributes to The Atlantic, spoke to CNN, suggesting the incident could be an effort "to cow Hezbollah into submission, and make clear that an increase of their attacks against Israel will be met with even further violence."

[144] The Washington Post later reported that the attack severely weakened Hezbollah's leadership and encouraged Israel to target and kill its top leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

[145] About a month later, the Iranian Civil Administration Organization issued a ban on all electronic communication devices, with the exception of mobile phones, on all commercial passenger flights.

[155] Alonso Gurmendi-Dunkelberg of the London School of Economics also said that, in order to meet the principle of distinction, Israel would have had to verify if each individual device was in the possession of a military target and not a civilian one.

US-based human rights lawyer Huwaida Arraf pointed out that civil servants are considered civilians under international law unless there is evidence that they have taken part in hostilities.

[25] Andreas Krieg, a professor of security studies at King's College London, said it was likely the pagers were distributed among civilian members of Hezbollah, such as those working in charities or the civil service, and these people were not taking part in hostilities.

[25] Article 7.2 of Amended Protocol II prohibits the use of "booby-traps or other devices in the form of apparently harmless portable objects which are specifically designed and constructed to contain explosive material".

[152][165] The United States Department of Defense Law of War Manual gives watches, cameras, tobacco pipes, and headphones as examples of such items,[25] which are prohibited to "prevent the production of large quantities of dangerous objects that can be scattered around and are likely to be attractive to civilians, especially children".

[152][166] Brian Finucane, an adviser at the International Crisis Group and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the NYU School of Law, noted that the Law of War Manual gives "exploding WWII-era communications headsets" as a specific example of prohibited booby traps, but also noted that "the United States submitted an understanding to Amended Protocol II that 'the prohibition contained in Article 7(2) of the Amended Mines Protocol does not preclude the expedient adaptation or adaptation in advance of other objects for use as booby-traps or other devices.

"[158] Janina Dill of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict doubted the attacks were proportionate because people carry pagers to different places, including taking them home.

[157] British human rights lawyer Geoffrey Nice said the attack was committed without regard to proportion, stating, "The pagers and walkie-talkies were of unknown position and destination when they were activated, therefore, it was impossible for Israel to contemplate whether the outcome would be proportionate".

[173] Nasrallah challenged the IDF to invade Lebanon, claiming Hezbollah was ready, and said that Israelis displaced in the north would only be allowed to return if Israel ceased the invasion of Gaza.

[177] On the day of the first wave of attacks, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid was on a trip to the United States to discuss a "ceasefire-for-hostages deal between Israel and Hamas".

Similar content was posted across pro-Israel accounts, while Israeli social media influencer Einav Avizemer called the attack an "operation below the belt.

[185] Volker Türk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, issued a statement saying that "Simultaneous targeting of thousands of individuals, whether civilians or members of armed groups, without knowledge as to who was in possession of the targeted devices, their location and their surroundings at the time of the attack, violates international human rights law and, to the extent applicable, international humanitarian law.

[192] Mohammed Abdelsalam, the spokesperson of the Houthis who govern much of Yemen, called the attacks "a heinous crime and a violation of Lebanese sovereignty" and said that Lebanon was "capable of deterring the Zionist enemy entity and making it pay a heavy price for any escalation.

"[192] Hours after the explosions and two days after firing a supersonic ballistic missile at Tel Aviv, the deputy head of the Houthis' media authority, Nasr Al-Din Amer, said the group was ready to send thousands of fighters to Lebanon in the event of war with Israel.