AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Yesterday, it was pagers turned into bombs that killed a dozen people and wounded thousands. Today in Lebanon, there was a fresh wave of explosions of other electronic devices that killed at least 14 more people and injured more than 450. The attacks targeted the Lebanese militia, Hezbollah. A U.S. official tells NPR that Israel privately claimed responsibility yesterday. Today, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant hinted at the excellent achievements by Israel's military and intelligence branches. He also said Israel was at, quote, "the beginning of a new era in this war." NPR's Daniel Estrin is on the line with us from Tel Aviv. Hi, Daniel.
DANIEL ESTRIN, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa.
CHANG: So I want to walk through some of the things we've learned about these two enemies, Hezbollah and Israel, over the past 24 hours. First, can we just talk about these pagers? Because we learned yesterday that Hezbollah uses old-school beepers to communicate. Why? I had no idea.
ESTRIN: Yeah. Actually, Hezbollah is led by a shadowy figure named Hassan Nasrallah. And he was worried that his group's operatives' cellphones were being spied on. This was not a secret. This was said in a televised address that he gave from a hideout in Lebanon. And his message was, to his military operatives, get rid of your cellphone.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
HASSAN NASRALLAH: (Speaking Arabic).
ESTRIN: Nasrallah said, "please, break it. Bury it. Lock it up in a metal box. Do it for a week, two weeks, a month. These" - referring to the cellphones - "are deadly spies." Now, his speech was back in February, and around that same time, Hezbollah switched to beepers. That is according to Amer Al Sabaileh. He is a Jordanian security expert with contacts inside Hezbollah. We spoke today. And he says this is all in the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel last October 7. A day later, October 8, Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel. Israel has since regularly targeted Hezbollah militants inside Lebanon. And so, Hezbollah has been concerned that Israel has actually tracked its men and its people through their smartphones, and so they switched to pagers.
CHANG: But wait, what does Israel gain from these explosions happening now, in particular?
ESTRIN: Well, Israel's leadership, remember, has not officially claimed responsibility for these pager explosions. But Israel's defense minister, even just a few days ago, warned that military action was the only way to stop Hezbollah's attacks on Israel and to allow tens of thousands of Israeli civilians to be able to return to their homes safely near the Lebanese border. And today, Israel's defense minister said the center of gravity is moving northward, meaning toward the Lebanese arena. He said that Israel is allocating resources and forces there. And he said we are at the start of a new phase in the war.
CHANG: Well, what do you think the likelihood is of Hezbollah retaliating now?
ESTRIN: We're hearing from security experts in the region that, actually, Hezbollah has taken such a big hit with these latest explosions that it may not have the capacity to initiate a retaliation now. First, its communications have been hijacked. Thousands of its operatives are wounded. There is likely very deep suspicion within Hezbollah that could spark a lot of questions about who may have collaborated with Israel to booby trap these pagers. And Amer Al Sabaileh, the Jordanian security expert, said Hezbollah may just not be in a position to attack now.
AMER AL SABAILEH: You don't know the level of infiltration and what next surprise Israel is preparing for you. And this means that going to war in such conditions might be a suicide recipe for Hezbollah.
ESTRIN: And what we know now, Ailsa, is that Israel is not only fighting a conventional war against Hezbollah with air strikes. We are now seeing a much more mysterious kind of subterfuge.
CHANG: That is NPR's Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv. Thank you, Daniel.
ESTRIN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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