 "Explained: Hezbollah pager blasts and Israel’s long history of complex operations")
At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 others wounded in Lebanon on Tuesday after wireless communication devices used by militant group Hezbollah’s members exploded in what appeared to be a targeted attack.
Hezbollah and the Lebanese government were quick to blame Israel for the nearly simultaneous detonation of hundreds of pagers.
Among those killed were the son of a prominent Hezbollah politician and an eight-year-old, the Lebanon health minister said. Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon was also among those injured by the explosions.
The attack coincided with growing hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, an organisation supported by Iran, which has been exchanging gunfire across the Israel-Lebanon border ever since Hamas’ October 7 attack that ignited the Gaza War.
Israel’s military declined to comment on the attacks on Tuesday.
The Jewish nation rarely takes responsibility for these kinds of assaults.
However, Israel has a long history of executing highly skilled remote operations, from complex cyberattacks to the use of remote-controlled machine guns to target leaders in drive-by shootings, suicide drone strikes, and explosions detonating in covert Iranian nuclear facilities.
Here is a look at previous operations that have been attributed to Israel:
July 2024
Two major militant leaders in Beirut and Tehran were killed in deadly strikes within hours of each other.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsIsmail Haniyeh, Hamas’s supreme leader, was assassinated in Iran’s capital, and Hamas claimed that Israel was responsible.
Although Israel didn’t acknowledge playing a role in that attack, it claimed responsibility for the lethal attack on Fouad Shukur, a key Hezbollah leader in Beirut.
July 2024
Israel launched a major strike in the congested southern Gaza Strip, aimed at Mohammed Deif, the shadowy leader of Hamas’ armed forces.
Local health officials reported that at least 90 people, including children, died as a result of the strike.
Although Hamas had earlier insisted that Deif had survived, the Israeli military declared in August that he had died in the attack.
April 2024
Iran claimed that an Israeli strike on its consulate in Syria resulted in the deaths of two Iranian generals.
Following the fatalities, Iran launched an unprecedented assault on Israel with over 300 drones and missiles, the majority of which were intercepted.
January 2024
An Israeli drone strike in Beirut killed Saleh Arouri, a top Hamas official in exile, as Israeli troops fight the militant group in Gaza.
December 2023
Seyed Razi Mousavi, a long-time adviser of the Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in Syria, was killed in a drone attack outside of Damascus. Iran blamed Israel.
2021
Rolling blackouts and a deadly cyberattack were directed towards an underground nuclear facility located in central Iran.
Iran claimed that Israel had employed explosive drones to carry out this attack, along with several others against Iranian nuclear sites in the years that followed.
2020
Top Iranian military nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed by a remote-controlled machine gun while driving outside of Tehran in one of the most well-known killings aimed at Iran’s nuclear program.
Israel was blamed by Iran.
2019
An Israeli airstrike hit the home of Bahaa Abu el-Atta, a senior Islamic Jihad commander in the Gaza Strip, killing him and his wife.
2012
Ahmad Jabari, head of Hamas’ armed wing, was killed when an airstrike targeted his car.
His death sparked an eight-day war between Hamas and Israel.
2010
The Stuxnet computer virus, discovered in 2010, disrupted and destroyed Iranian nuclear centrifuges. It was widely believed to be a joint U.S.-Israeli creation.
2010
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a top Hamas operative, was killed in a Dubai hotel room in an operation attributed to the Mossad spy agency but never acknowledged by Israel.
Many of the 26 supposed assassins were caught on camera disguised as tourists.
2008
The head of Hezbollah’s military, Imad Mughniyeh, died in Damascus when a bomb detonated in his vehicle.
Mughniyeh was accused of organising suicide bombs during the civil war in Lebanon and organising the 1985 hijacking of a TWA flight that claimed the life of a US Navy diver.
Hezbollah accused Israel of killing him.
In 2015, an Israeli strike murdered his son Jihad Mughniyeh.
2004
Hamas’ spiritual leader, Ahmed Yassin, was killed in an Israeli helicopter strike while being pushed in his wheelchair. Yassin, who was paralysed in a childhood accident, was among the founders of Hamas in 1987.
His successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, was killed in an Israeli airstrike less than a month later.
2002
Hamas’s second-highest military leader, Salah Shehadeh, was killed by a one-tonne bomb dropped on an apartment building in Gaza City.
1997
In Amman, Jordan, Mossad agents attempted to assassinate Khaled Mashaal, the leader of Hamas at the time.
Using fake Canadian passports, two spies entered Jordan and used a device to poison Mashaal near his ear.
Not long after, they were captured, and the king of Jordan vowed to annul a brand-new peace treaty if Mashaal died.
In the end, Israel sent an antidote, and the Israeli operatives were sent back home. Mashaal is still a prominent member of Hamas.
1996
Yahya Ayyash, nicknamed the “engineer” for his mastery in building bombs for Hamas, was killed by answering a rigged phone in Gaza. His assassination triggered a series of deadly bus bombings in Israel.
1995
Islamic Jihad founder Fathi Shikaki was shot in the head in Malta in an assassination widely believed to have been carried out by Israel.
1988
Palestine Liberation Organisation military chief Khalil al-Wazir was killed in Tunisia. Better known as Abu Jihad, he had been PLO chief Yasser Arafat’s deputy. In 2012, military censors allowed an Israeli paper to reveal details of the Israeli raid for the first time.
1973
In a nighttime assault headed by Ehud Barak — later Israel’s prime minister and top army commander — Israeli commandos shot several PLO commanders in their apartments in Beirut.
This operation was one of several Israeli assassinations of Palestinian officials, carried out as payback for the murders of eleven Israeli athletes and coaches during the Munich Olympics in 1972.
With inputs from The Associated Press
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
