The recent explosion of thousands of pagers across Lebanon is an alarming development that bears the hallmarks of Israeli involvement, potentially signaling an imminent military escalation between Israel and Hezbollah. This tension has been mounting since Hezbollah’s recent engagement with Israeli forces, a direct response to Israel’s intensified military actions against Gaza following the deadly October 7 Hamas-led attack. The strategic aim behind targeting Lebanon’s pagers is clear: to cripple Hezbollah’s internal communications, a vital component of its military operations.

Hezbollah, in recent years, has shifted away from using mobile phones for communication, suspecting Israeli intelligence had compromised them, leading to the identification and targeted killing of key Hezbollah figures. By attacking the pager network, Israel is likely attempting to exploit this new vulnerability, seeking to erode Hezbollah’s capacity to coordinate in the event of a military escalation. In doing so, Israel may be looking to gain the upper hand in its broader regional strategy, one that involves neutralizing Hezbollah’s influence while simultaneously suppressing Hamas in Gaza.

Although the immediate death toll from the pager blasts stood at nine and may rise as some of the 2,800 wounded remain in critical condition, the broader implications of these explosions are even more concerning. Lebanon’s healthcare system, already strained,........

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