This was very similar to the act of using butterfly mines. Yes, Hezbollah were the ones who ordered them, but you cannot be certain that they were going to stay in hezbollah’s hands. There are examples of these things going off in public places or in hospitals. This wasn’t some crazy precision strike, this was just terrorism. They could have done things to reduce collateral, like detonating them at night so they blow up in people’s homes instead of at a store, but instead it seems like they made decisions that would increase collateral (like detonating the bombs during the day, when they could blow up at a store).
Hell, imagine if one of those things had been on a plane? The blasts were big enough that it could have almost certainly punched a hole through a plane’s hull if someone was sitting in a window seat.
If Israel had, I dunno, made a cellphone with a bullet in the speaker which got triggered when you received a call from known Hezbollah leaders, then I’d be more supportive of it. But planting bombs in electronics that could make their way out of hezbollah’s hands and into civilian hands is a big no-no to me. And yes, pagers could make it into civilian hands, doctors still widely use them in many places including the US. I personally don’t think it seems outside the realm of possibility that hezbollah might hand out extra pagers to hospitals for the purpose of creating a positive image with locals. Same reason why drug lords usually try to keep their territories clean and invest in local projects.
Bruh.
This was very similar to the act of using butterfly mines. Yes, Hezbollah were the ones who ordered them, but you cannot be certain that they were going to stay in hezbollah’s hands. There are examples of these things going off in public places or in hospitals. This wasn’t some crazy precision strike, this was just terrorism. They could have done things to reduce collateral, like detonating them at night so they blow up in people’s homes instead of at a store, but instead it seems like they made decisions that would increase collateral (like detonating the bombs during the day, when they could blow up at a store).
Hell, imagine if one of those things had been on a plane? The blasts were big enough that it could have almost certainly punched a hole through a plane’s hull if someone was sitting in a window seat.
If Israel had, I dunno, made a cellphone with a bullet in the speaker which got triggered when you received a call from known Hezbollah leaders, then I’d be more supportive of it. But planting bombs in electronics that could make their way out of hezbollah’s hands and into civilian hands is a big no-no to me. And yes, pagers could make it into civilian hands, doctors still widely use them in many places including the US. I personally don’t think it seems outside the realm of possibility that hezbollah might hand out extra pagers to hospitals for the purpose of creating a positive image with locals. Same reason why drug lords usually try to keep their territories clean and invest in local projects.
Hezbollah had handed out these pagers only a few days before they exploded. Some were even inside their original packaging still.