Another Take: Deadly pager attacks leave Lebanon in shock
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 748 Ratings
🗓️ 13 September 2025
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Every Saturday, we revisit a story from the archives. This originally aired on September 18, 2024. None of the dates, titles, or other references from that time have been changed.
Lebanon is reeling after two days of coordinated attacks attributed to Israel that detonated thousands of pagers belonging to Hezbollah. The simultaneous explosions – in indiscriminate locations across the country – left deaths and thousands of injuries in their wake. Does this unprecedented attack signal a new reality?
In this episode:
- Justin Salhani (@JustinSalhani), Al Jazeera Journalist
Episode credits:
This episode was updated by Sarí el-Khalili. The original production team was Ashish Malhotra, Marcos Bartolomé, Khaled Soltan, Chloe K. Li, Phillip Lanos, Hagir Saleh, Shraddha Joshi, Duha Mosaad, Cole van Miltenburg, and our host Malika Bilal.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our engagement producers are Adam Abou-Gad and Vienna Maglio. Aya Elmileik is lead of audience engagement. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Hey, I'm Seril Khalili. I'm a senior producer with a take, back with another take, where we bring you episodes from the past. |
| 0:19.0 | Lebanon lived through a wave of horror starting September 17 last year, |
| 0:25.2 | when thousands of pagers linked to Hezbollah began to explode across the country. It was a covert |
| 0:32.6 | Israeli operation aimed at striking the armed group from the inside. |
| 0:42.5 | By the time the explosions ended, dozens were dead and thousands injured. |
| 0:44.9 | Then it escalated. |
| 0:52.9 | On September 27, Israel carried out a massive air strike on a Hezbollah command center in Beirut, |
| 0:55.3 | killing the group's longtime leader, |
| 1:03.2 | Hassan Nasrallah, along with dozens of others. The fallout wasn't just political. For survivors of the attacks and their families, the trauma is still raw, and many have been left with |
| 1:10.1 | lifelong injuries. |
| 1:12.3 | The day the explosions began, we spoke to Al Jazeera's Justin Salhani. |
| 1:17.6 | This episode aired on September 18, 2024. |
| 1:22.0 | All dates and references are from that time. |
| 1:33.6 | Thank you. are from that time. Today, the dust has not settled |
| 1:36.3 | after a wave of pager explosions across Lebanon. |
| 1:39.9 | Local media reports say the pagers |
| 1:42.3 | simultaneously exploded across the country after being hacked by Israel. |
| 1:47.2 | Reports indicate that U.S. officials have confirmed Israel was responsible for the attacks, |
| 1:52.6 | to which Hezbollah has vowed to respond with their punishment. |
| 1:56.5 | So how did it happen? |
| 1:59.5 | I'm Malika Bilal, and this is The Take. |
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