#indiscriminate attacks

An indiscriminate attack is defined by international law as "attack of a nature to strike military objectives and civilians or civilian objects without discrimination," and includes an attack that "employs a method or means of warfare which cannot be directed at a specific military objective (or person); or employs a method or means of combat the effects of which cannot be limited as required by international humanitarian law."

A second wave of device explosions on 18 September 2024 injured at least 450 more people and killed at least 14 (the AP is saying at least 20); the pager explosions on 17 September injured almost 3,000 and have now killed 12.

AL JAZEERA notes:

Some observers have wondered if Wednesday’s blasts were similar to what happened with the pagers. With those, the supply chain might have been infiltrated and the devices loaded with 1 to 3 grammes (0.04 to 0.11oz) of a powerful explosive. It seems that at least some Hezbollah members believe the explosions are linked to batteries. Several of them quickly took the batteries out of their radios and tossed them away after one exploded during a funeral in a southern suburb of Beirut, according to the Reuters news agency. Pagers use radio transmission and reception as does, of course, a radio. Most of the impacted devices appeared to be communication systems, but there were also some reports of other devices exploding, like solar panels.

Based on the reports from Tuesday, I'm guessing the methodology was the same in both attacks: Mossad operatives managing to gain physical access to an array of devices being shipped into Lebanon and booby-trapping their batteries with small amounts of high explosive that could somehow be detonated remotely. The reports yesterday suggested the explosive used may have been PETN (pentaerythritol tetranitrate), which is heat-sensitive; I assume forensics will eventually have more conclusive results.