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Comment by NelsonMinar | Hacker News Reader

I wonder what Israel did to ensure that only legitimate targets were harmed by the sabotaged pagers.

Would we be surprised if the answer is “nothing”.

Of course we can read anything we want from the silence, as it’s unlike we’re getting any details about it. Anything in the range of “of course they did, we’re talking about a civilized country” to “of course they didn’t, how could they”.

The fact that these pagers were to be used by Hezbollah is what they did.

These pagers were distributed only to Hezbollah members, these were not just standard pagers anyone could buy.

Do you have a reference for that? And does it explain how Israel's assassins were sure none of the pagers weren't resold, nor given away, nor that someone's kid was playing with it?

Hezbollah also has a massive social services wing, operating hospitals, schools, etc. I'd keep that in mind when hitching my wagon to this line of thinking.

Those people aren't getting a secure one-way pager giving them secret messages.

They use a standard phone.

Nothing in the linked article backs up the implication that only members of Helbollah’s militant wing had these.

It did, however, mention that an 8 year old girl was killed by one of them. Which is a foreseeable consequence of widely distributing a bunch of bombs and then detonating them without regard for who’s nearby.

Some sources are saying that some medics have been victims. Pagers are apparently a very useful resource for emergencies/medics (see motorola website).

The pagers were not secure at all also.

Even though I personally doubt this statement, care to explain how that would possibly be enough? If an explosion happens, everyone in range is hit.

"Enough" to meet what criteria? A couple foot blast on handheld device on a military personnel is brain surgery in comparison to typical rockets with accuracy and blast radii measured in double digit meters

Hezbollah operates a parallel telecommunications network. They are not a terrorist group so much as the de facto government of Lebanon and a parallel armed forces. It is unlikely that anyone unaffiliated with Hezbollah could have used these pagers.

like I don't know, someone's spouse or child? Someone standing next to the thing when it's sitting on a night stand?

Small charges (measured in grams) are extremely local and typically highly directional. They have a distinctive signature that is in evidence here. It isn't like a giant bomb going off.

> everyone in range is hit.

The range is tiny. Go watch some videos, for example this one: https://x.com/DrEliDavid/status/1836037485492629605

People standing directly next to the target are unharmed.

With the size of these explosions, the "range" seems very small.

you realize they exploded, right? potentially as someone's child was nearby. or playing with it. or in the middle of a grocery story.

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