Mysterious pager and CB radio explosions across the country, left thousands of people with severe injuries, including loss of eyes, limbs, and in some cases, causing mortal wounds. This scenario, reminiscent of Hollywood espionage movies, unfolded across Lebanon and into adjacent Syria, as pagers in the possession of approximately 3,000 Hezbollah members began exploding. This bloody episode, spanning two consecutive days, resulted in 37 deaths and over 2,931 injuries. Many lost one or both eyes, others lost fingers or entire hands, and some were castrated, leaving the entire country in shock.

This supposed Israeli attack on Hezbollah’s communication network quickly became global news. Speculation ran rampant about how Israeli intelligence could execute such an elaborate scheme, one that likely required months, if not years, of planning and surgical precision. The Israelis managed to add an explosive component to the handheld devices and, through a synchronized operation, detonated thousands of pagers – a somewhat outdated 1980s technology that Hezbollah strangely believed was immune to Israeli infiltration.

Following this attack, Israel assassinated the entire command of the Radwan Brigade, Hezbollah’s elite fighting unit named after Imad Mughniyeh, a notorious outfit that earned its stripes in Syria.

Early Friday afternoon, Ibrahim Aqel, commander of the Radwan Brigade and head of Hezbollah’s southern operations since the onset of the October 7 Hamas attack against Israel, convened a meeting with his field commanders in the basement of a civilian building in the densely populated Southern Suburb of Beirut. Despite the nearby kindergarten, the Israeli Air Force seized the opportunity, leveling the two adjacent buildings, killing Aqel, his entire command, other senior Hezbollah commanders, and ten civilians, some of whom remain buried in the rubble. Aqel, a member of Hezbollah’s military and Jihadi council, was also on the United States’ hit list for his involvement in the US embassy annex attack 40 years ago – a tragic coincidence, as his death fell on the same day.

By executing these attacks, Israel clearly aims to provoke Hezbollah into a more direct confrontation, one that could pull the United States and the international community into siding with Israel, and potentially lead to conflict with Iran – a scenario that Prime Minister Netanyahu appears to welcome.

While global media focused on the sophisticated nature of this Israeli espionage feat and Hezbollah’s subsequent calamity, the overwhelming majority missed the underlying message that the deadly pager attack delivered – one that Hezbollah has refused to acknowledge for the past two decades.

The pager affair and the ensuing war serve as a stark reminder that wars are not fought solely with old Soviet-era weapons and civilian drone technology. They require a comprehensive mix of economic, social, and cultural assets – areas in which Hezbollah, as an Iranian proxy, clearly falls short. Firstly, Hezbollah lacks the healthcare and paramedical training necessary to properly evacuate its wounded, let alone establish field hospitals, which are fundamental to any fighting force’s strategy. Videos showing pagers exploding in the hands of Hezbollah members also reveal a lack of training and evacuation procedures, as medics – many of whom were part of Hezbollah’s ambulance service – were seen running around in chaos.

Secondly, while Hezbollah claims to have a cache of Israeli targets and the capability to strike Tel Aviv, it lacks proper medical infrastructure to care for its own. Most of the wounded Hezbollah operatives were rushed to hospitals outside of Hezbollah-controlled areas, including the American University of Beirut’s Medical Center (AUB), where doctors, nurses, and staff worked tirelessly for three days to treat the injured, mirroring the efforts of hundreds of hospitals across Lebanon. Blood banks were filled with donors, including vocal opponents of Hezbollah, whose human decency led them to support their fellow citizens in need.

Furthermore, the attacks on the pagers and the assassination of the Radwan Brigade leadership underscore Hezbollah’s failure in basic security protocols. If Israel managed to target the pagers on the first day, why did Hezbollah continue to use CB radios, knowing the extent of Israeli infiltration? More puzzlingly, why would Ibrahim Aqel and his supposed veteran commanders meet in one room, fully aware that Israel was actively hunting them? Perhaps they believed the human shields around them would offer protection. Despite claims of an elaborate network of tunnels and fortifications, Aqel chose to convene his war council in a basement beneath a daycare, with rockets and military components stored within densely populated civilian areas now being targeted by Israel, killing the same people Hezbollah claims to protect.

The obituaries of these senior leaders are a reminder that the honors they claim were earned on the killing fields of Syria. Aqel and his squad have the blood of innocent civilians from al-Qalamoun and al-Zabadani on their hands, and his deputy, Hussein Ali Ghandour, known as the Butcher of Madaya, infamously besieged and starved a town near Damascus.

Hezbollah’s greatest strategic error is not just its involvement in the killing of innocent Syrians and Lebanese but its isolation of Lebanon’s Shia community from their regional Arab neighbors. This isolation is particularly damaging if Hezbollah intends to survive any direct confrontation with Israel.

In 2006, after declaring victory over Israel, Nasrallah believed it would be the last confrontation with their traditional enemy. They have since transformed into an occupying force, furthering the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’ expansionist agenda and silencing any opposition, including voices like my friend Lokman Slim, who warned of the dangers of appeasing Hezbollah and simply predicated Lebanon’s current unraveling tragedy.

Today, with bombs being dropped on civilians, the Lebanese must grasp that while Israel can dismantle Hezbollah’s military infrastructure, it cannot eradicate the ideology that has grown from years of impunity and appeasement – one that has allowed Iran to hold Lebanon and the region hostage and which normalized murder and death.