Stop weaponing electronic devices

Last week, Lebanon was rocked by a series of explosions involving pagers and walkie-talkies. These attacks have caused significant casualties and heightened tensions in the region. The death toll has been put at 37 Hezbollah members while thousands were injured. The incidents have raised concerns about further escalation and the potential for broader conflict. Israel has been implicated in these attacks, with officials suggesting that this marks the beginning of a “new era” of warfare. The scale of the attack is something one has not seen before. What is interesting to note here is that Mossad has a history of sophisticated hits against enemy targets.

The use of the Stuxnet computer virus that destroyed Iranian nuclear centrifuges and the killing of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh by a remote-controlled machine gun are examples of how Israeli secret services are used during conflicts. Israel has disregarded all human centric norms of war set by international laws. Sadly, no power on earth is able to contain Israel’s deadly moves of targeting civilians and children by bombing schools, hospitals, civilian areas and now weaponing electronic devices. The new deadly strategy of Israel to avoid taking the enemy on battle fields but kill them in civilian areas like malls, roads, markets and homes by blasting electronic devices is deplorable. This strategy is dangerous. What is worrisome is that large-scale use of walkie-talkies by various organisations such as police, airports operations, hospitals and rescue teams across the world is at risk of beingblasted. Israel has set a dangerous trend in modern warfare. It looks like Israel has taken the saying “all is fair in love and war” too far.

The abuse of technology has sent shivers down the spine of gizmos users. The big worry is that future wars may extend to civilian areas instead of battle grounds as demonstrated by Israel. Today, we live in a connected world. The use of tech gadgets has no boundaries. Rogue nations can abuse tech to annihilate civilian populations. Such is the danger of abuse of technology. The nature of the attacks has also raised serious concerns about the security and integrity of global supply chains of electronic goods. This has caused a big worry as hitherto security concerns werefocused on software hacking. Now Israel has shown it can be extended to hardware too. The days may not be too far when connected cars, aeroplanes, ships, devices at homes, schools, hospitals, mobile devices, home computers, kitchens etc., can be vulnerable targets.

The governments across the world may be a worried lot as their sensitive systems can be targeted easily by tampering with Wi-Fi and blasting devices. The heinous act of Israel blasting pagers, walkie- talkies may impact the aviation sector where onboard passenger mobile phones and other Wi-Fienabled devices become a flight risk. The biggest danger of this strategy is it can be used by terrorist groups too. Another dangerous method Israel may have adopted is using global supply chains and civilian tech companies to embed explosives which can be blasted by detonating them from remote areas. It looks like guns, tanks, bombs missiles and drones are passe. Electronics devices are being used as killing machines. International law has never addressed the targeting of communication devices that people carry on their bodies. The Geneva Conventions, which provide a rule book for the protection of civilians during conflict, were adopted 75 years ago, long before pagers, mobile phones, and walkie-talkieswere in widespread public use.

It’s time to revisit Geneva Conventions and address questions like: Are electronic devices new booby traps? It's time to end this madness and stop weaponing electronic devices. These devices should be used for human good and their abuse goes against the law of mankind.