How Israel Built a Modern-Day Trojan Horse: Exploding Pagers
SHEERA FRENKEL, RONEN BERGMAN, HWAIDA SAAD真主党支持者星期三哀悼在爆炸中丧生的四名同事。Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York TimesThe pagers began beeping just after 3:30 in the afternoon in Lebanon on Tuesday, alerting Hezbollah operatives to a message from their leadership in a chorus of chimes, melodies, and buzzes.周二下午三点半刚过，在黎巴嫩，寻呼机开始响起，各种铃声、旋律和嗡鸣此起彼伏，提醒真主党特工注意领导层发出的信息。But it wasn’t the militants’ leaders. The pages had been sent by Hezbollah’s archenemy, and within seconds the alerts were followed by the sounds of explosions and cries of pain and panic in streets, shops and homes across Lebanon.但信息不是来自武装分子的领导人。这些呼叫是由真主党的死敌发送的，提醒声响起后的几秒钟里，黎巴嫩各地的街道、商店和家宅响起了爆炸声和痛苦、恐慌的呼喊声。Powered by just a few ounces of an explosive compound concealed within the devices, the blasts sent grown men flying off motorcycles and slamming into walls, according to witnesses and video footage. People out shopping fell to the ground, writhing in agony, smoke snaking from their pockets.爆炸仅仅靠的是隐藏在设备中的几盎司爆炸性化合物，据目击陈述和视频片段，爆炸使成年男子从摩托车上飞下来，撞向墙壁。外出购物的人倒在地上，痛苦地扭动着身体，口袋里冒出烟雾。Mohammed Awada, 52, and his son were driving by one man whose pager exploded, he said. “My son went crazy and started to scream when he saw the man’s hand flying away from him,” he said.52岁的穆罕默德·阿瓦达和儿子开车经过一名呼机爆炸的男子。他说：“当我儿子看到那个男人的手从他身边飞走时，他吓疯了，开始尖叫。”By the end of the day, at least a dozen people were dead and more than 2,700 were wounded, many of them maimed. And the following day, 20 more people were killed and hundreds wounded when walkie-talkies in Lebanon also began mysteriously exploding. Some of the dead and wounded were Hezbollah members, but others were not; four of the dead were children.到当天结束时，至少有12人死亡，2700多人受伤，其中许多人致残。第二天，黎巴嫩的对讲机也开始神秘爆炸，造成20多人死亡，数以百计人受伤。一些死伤者是真主党成员，但也有人不是；死者中有四人是儿童。Israel has neither confirmed nor denied any role in the explosions, but 12 current and former defense and intelligence officials who were briefed on the attack say the Israelis were behind it, describing the operation as complex and long in the making. They spoke to The New York Times on the condition of anonymity, given the sensitivity of the subject.以色列既没有证实也未否认在爆炸中扮演了任何角色，但是听取了这次袭击简报的12名现任和前任国防和情报官员说，以色列是幕后主使。他们说，这次行动很复杂，酝酿了很长时间。鉴于话题的敏感性，他们在匿名的条件下接受了《纽约时报》的采访。
The booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkies were the latest salvo in the decades-long conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which is based across the border in Lebanon. The tensions escalated after the war began in the Gaza Strip.以色列和驻扎在黎以边境黎巴嫩一侧的真主党之间的冲突已经持续了数十年，这些被埋置诡雷的寻呼机和对讲机是最新的一次攻击。加沙地带战争开始后，双方的紧张局势升级。Iranian-backed groups like Hezbollah have long been vulnerable to Israeli attacks using sophisticated technologies. In 2020, for example, Israel assassinated Iran’s top nuclear scientist using an A.I.-assisted robot controlled remotely via satellite. Israel has also used hacking to stymie Iranian nuclear development.长期以来，真主党等伊朗支持的组织很容易受到以色列使用尖端技术的攻击。例如，在2020年，以色列用一个通过卫星远程控制的人工智能辅助机器人暗杀了伊朗的顶级核科学家。以色列还利用黑客手段阻止伊朗的核发展。In Lebanon, as Israel picked off senior Hezbollah commandos with targeted assassinations, their leader came to a conclusion: If Israel was going high-tech, Hezbollah would go low. It was clear, a distressed Hezbollah chief, Hassan Nasrallah, said, that Israel was using cellphone networks to pinpoint the locations of his operatives.在黎巴嫩，随着一系列真主党高级特战人员被以色列定点击杀，该组织领导人得出了一个结论：以色列走高科技路线，真主党就走低科技路线。忧心忡忡的真主党首领哈桑·纳斯鲁拉说，很明显，以色列利用手机网络来确定他手下特工的位置。“You ask me where is the agent,” Mr. Nasrallah told his followers in a publicly televised address in February. “I tell you that the phone in your hands, in your wife’s hands, and in your children’s hands is the agent.”“你问我特工在哪里，”纳斯鲁拉今年2月在一次公开电视讲话中对追随者说。“我告诉你们，你手中、你妻子手中和你孩子手中的电话就是特工。”Then he issued a plea.然后他提出了一项请求。“Bury it,” Mr. Nasrallah said. “Put it in an iron box and lock it.”“把它埋了，”纳斯鲁拉说。“把它放进铁盒子里，锁上。”He had been pushing for years for Hezbollah to invest instead in pagers, which for all their limited capabilities could receive data without giving away a user’s location or other compromising information, according to American intelligence assessments.多年来，他一直在推动真主党转向寻呼机，根据美国的情报评估，尽管功能有限，寻呼机可以在不泄露用户位置或其他有害信息的情况下接收数据。
真主党领导人哈桑·纳斯鲁拉向支持者发表电视讲话。Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times
Israeli intelligence officials saw an opportunity.以色列情报官员看到了机会。Even before Mr. Nasrallah decided to expand pager usage, Israel had put into motion a plan to establish a shell company that would pose as an international pager producer.甚至在纳斯鲁拉决定扩大传呼机的使用之前，以色列就已经启动了一项计划，要建立一家空壳公司，冒充一家国际传呼机生产商。By all appearances, B.A.C. Consulting was a Hungary-based company that was under contract to produce the devices on behalf of a Taiwanese company, Gold Apollo. In fact, it was part of an Israeli front, according to three intelligence officers briefed on the operation. They said at least two other shell companies were created as well to mask the real identities of the people creating the pagers: Israeli intelligence officers.从表面上看，BAC咨询公司是一家总部位于匈牙利的公司，依据合同代表台湾公司金阿波罗生产这些设备。据三名听取了行动简报的情报官员说，事实上，该公司是以色列的幌子。他们说，另外至少还创办了两家空壳公司，以掩盖制造寻呼机者的以色列情报官员身份。B.A.C. did take on ordinary clients, for which it produced a range of ordinary pagers. But the only client that really mattered was Hezbollah, and its pagers were far from ordinary. Produced separately, they contained batteries laced with the explosive PETN, according to the three intelligence officers.BAC确实接受了普通客户，并为此生产了一系列普通寻呼机。但它唯一真正重要的客户是真主党，而真主党的寻呼机远非普通寻呼机可比。据三名情报官员说，这些炸弹是单独制造的，里面的电池掺有PETN炸药。The pagers began shipping to Lebanon in the summer of 2022 in small numbers, but production was quickly ramped up after Mr. Nasrallah denounced cellphones.这种寻呼机于2022年夏天开始少量运往黎巴嫩，但在纳斯鲁拉谴责手机之后，产量迅速增加。Some of Mr. Nasrallah’s fears were spurred by reports from allies that Israel had acquired new means to hack into phones, activating microphones and cameras remotely to spy on their owners. According to three intelligence officials, Israel had invested millions in developing the technology, and word spread among Hezbollah and its allies that no cellphone communication — even encrypted messaging apps — was safe anymore.纳斯鲁拉的一些担忧来自盟友的报告，这些报告称，以色列已经掌握了侵入手机的新手段，可以远程激活麦克风和摄像头，监视手机的主人。根据三名情报官员的说法，以色列已经投入了数以百万计的资金来开发这项技术，真主党及其盟友之间也流传着这样的说法：手机通信——甚至是加密的消息应用程序——都不再安全了。
Not only did Mr. Nasrallah ban cellphones from meetings of Hezbollah operatives, he ordered that the details of Hezbollah movements and plans never be communicated over cellphones, said three intelligence officials. Hezbollah officers, he ordered, had to carry pagers at all times, and in the event of war, pagers would be used to tell fighters where to go.三名情报官员说，纳斯鲁拉不仅禁止真主党成员开会时使用手机，还下令真主党的行动和计划的细节绝不能通过手机交流。他命令真主党的军官必须随时携带寻呼机，一旦发生战争，就用传呼机告诉战士们该去哪里。Over the summer, shipments of the pagers to Lebanon increased, with thousands arriving in the country and being distributed among Hezbollah officers and their allies, according to two American intelligence officials.据两名美国情报官员称，今年夏天，运往黎巴嫩的寻呼机有所增加，数以千计的寻呼机抵达黎巴嫩，被发给真主党官员及其盟友。To Hezbollah, they were a defensive measure, but in Israel, intelligence officers referred to the pagers as “buttons” that could be pushed when the time seemed ripe.对真主党来说，这是一种防御措施，但在以色列，情报官员把寻呼机称为“按钮”，一旦时机成熟就可以按下。That moment, it appears, came this week.这一时刻似乎在本周到来。Speaking to his security cabinet on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would do whatever was necessary to enable more than 70,000 Israelis driven away by the fighting with Hezbollah to return home, according to reports in Israeli news outlets. Those residents, he said, could not return without “a fundamental change in the security situation in the north,” according to a statement from the prime minister’s office.据以色列新闻媒体报道，以色列总理本雅明·内塔尼亚胡周日对安全内阁表示，他将采取一切必要措施，让因为与真主党的战斗而离开的7万多名以色列人重返家园。根据总理办公室的一份声明，他说，如果“北部的安全局势没有根本改变”，这些居民就不能返回。On Tuesday, the order was given to activate the pagers.周二，启动寻呼机的命令下达了。To set off the explosions, according to three intelligence and defense officials, Israel triggered the pagers to beep and sent a message to them in Arabic that appeared as though it had come from Hezbollah’s senior leadership.据三名情报和国防官员说，为了引爆炸弹，以色列触发了寻呼机的响声，并用阿拉伯语向传呼机发送了一条看似来自真主党高层领导的信息。Seconds later, Lebanon was in chaos.几秒钟后，黎巴嫩陷入混乱。With so many people wounded, ambulances crawled through the streets, and hospitals were soon overwhelmed. Hezbollah said at least eight of its fighters were killed, but noncombatants were also drawn into the fray.由于有多人受伤，救护车在街上缓慢行驶，医院很快就人满为患。真主党说，至少有八名真主党武装人员丧生，但也有非战斗人员被卷入。
2024年9月18日，法蒂玛·贾法尔·马哈茂德·阿卜杜拉的亲戚和朋友在她的葬礼上，她于前一天死于寻呼机爆炸。Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times
In southern Lebanon, in the village of Saraain, one young girl, Fatima Abdullah, had just come home from her first day of fourth grade when she heard her father’s pager begin to beep, her aunt said. She picked up the device to bring it to him and was holding it when it exploded, killing her. Fatima was 9.在黎巴嫩南部的萨拉因村，一个名叫法蒂玛·阿卜杜拉的四年级小女孩刚上完新学期的第一天课，听到父亲的呼机开始响起，她的阿姨说，她拿起呼机准备交给他，结果炸弹爆炸，炸死了她。法蒂玛只有九岁。On Wednesday, as thousands gathered in Beirut’s southern suburbs to attend an outdoor funeral for two people killed in the blasts, chaos erupted anew: There was another explosion.周三，数以千计的人聚集在贝鲁特南郊，参加在户外为爆炸中丧生的两人举行的葬礼，混乱再次爆发：又发生了一起爆炸。Amid the acrid smoke, panicked mourners stampeded for the streets, seeking shelter in the lobbies of nearby buildings. Many were afraid that their phone, or the phone of a person standing next to them in the crowd, was about to explode.在刺鼻的烟雾中，惊慌失措的哀悼者纷纷跑到街上，在附近建筑物的大厅里寻求庇护。许多人担心他们的手机，或者自己旁边的人手机会爆炸。“Turn off your phone!” some shouted. “Take out the battery!” Soon a voice on a loudspeaker at the funeral urged everyone to do this.“关掉手机！”有人喊道。“把电池取出来！”不久，葬礼上的扩音器里传来一个声音，敦促大家都这样做。For the Lebanese, the second wave of explosions was confirmation of the lesson from the day before: They now live in a world in which the most common of communication devices can be transformed into instruments of death.对黎巴嫩人来说，第二波爆炸证实了前一天的教训：他们现在生活在一个最常见的通讯设备可以变成死亡工具的世界里。One woman, Um Ibrahim, stopped a reporter in the middle of the confusion and begged to use a cellphone to call her children. Her hands shaking, she dialed a number and then screamed a directive:一名名叫厄姆·易卜拉欣的女人在混乱中拦住了一名记者，请求用记者的手机给她的孩子打电话。她双手颤抖，拨通了一个号码，然后尖叫着发出指令：“Turn off your phones now!”“马上把手机关掉！”
