Israel carried out a covert operation on Sept. 17, detonating hundreds of pagers and radios ostensibly targeting Hezbollah members in Lebanon. Israel’s new method of terror may be one of the first of its kind — personal electronic devices sabotaged to explode.

MacEwan students spoke to the Griff and shared how the attack affected them and their families.

Abdul, who did not provide his last name due to security concerns, said his family could have been at a grocery store, just like in the one on social media. “It was just complete terror,” he said.

“I can’t explain it to myself,” he said. “I can’t explain their justification to myself of why they went through such an act without considering, especially, civilians. It’s horrific to me.”

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“Because you can see how many innocent kids, innocent women and children, how many innocent people have died.”

Abdul, MacEwan student

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12 people were killed and 2,800 wounded in Israel’s pager attack, including two children. Israel’s follow-up attack detonated walkie-talkies, killing 25 people and injuring 600 others.

Abdul described his family in Lebanon and asked how he was supposed to know if they were safe. How does he know if their devices are rigged? “How are they supposed to know that?” he said.

Abdul believes what Israel is doing in Palestine and Gaza is collective punishment. Israel has bombed every hospital, every school, every refugee camp, tents. “And it’s just so clear that they don’t have intentions to specifically target militants,” he said. 

“Because you can see how many innocent kids, innocent women and children, how many innocent people have died.”

Israel has destroyed hospitals, schools, universities, and mosques. Israelis are blocking aid into Gaza, complete with bouncy castles. As cases of polio spread in Gaza, Israeli occupation forces gleefully recorded themselves detonating the Canada Well water treatment facility in Rafah. This isn’t the first time Israel has destroyed the Canada Well, as it’s commonly known because it was built with funding from the Canadian government.

Tasneem Moussa told the Griff she has lost many friends and family. Moussa, born in Lebanon and recently moved to Canada, said it is hard because her dad works in an area close to where Israel is bombing, and her cousin studies in Beirut.

“I just lost a very close friend of mine,” Moussa said. “Him, his mom, and his stepdad, they were targeted by Israel.”

“We’re always in constant fear of how family is so close to the bombing, and how scared they get when they hear any attack,” she said. “My cousin said I can’t hold my phone; I’m putting it away.”

“So, it fully broke trust,” she said. “It’s something that, as I said, was not used before, and now it’s a new idea.”

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“It shakes everything. You wake up to a notification, and suddenly, the whole world feels different,”

Amanni Chaaban, MacEwan student

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Moussa said Israel’s attack was like the atomic bomb. The atomic bomb never existed before. “It was dropped, and then it happened. People got their idea from it, and they built more.”

“It’s the same with the pagers.”

For Amanni Chaaban, it’s hard to even put into words what an attack like this does. “It shakes everything. You wake up to a notification, and suddenly, the whole world feels different,” she said.

“It’s not just something happening on TV — it’s your family, your people, your home being torn apart.”

Chaaban said that when she’s in class trying to focus, what is really on her mind are those kids, not knowing if their next step will be their last. “It’s hard. It’s traumatizing.”

“We’re carrying all of this every day, just asking ourselves, ‘How much more needs to happen before something changes?’” Chaaban said. “How many more of us have to die before anyone cares?”

Andy Knight, a professor of international relations in the political science department at the University of Alberta, said exploding pagers go against everything we know about international humanitarian and international law. It falls outside the bounds of the laws of war.

Knight believes the unconventional tactic was equivalent to a terroristic tactic. He said all nation-states have a right to defend themselves; that is the nature of sovereignty as a principle of international law.

“But I think in this particular case, you can’t violate principles of sovereignty and expect to be considered a sovereign state yourself. And I think that’s exactly what Israel is doing right now. It’s violating that principle of sovereignty,” Knight said.

“They have to be called out for what they’re doing because if we allow this to continue without any sort of criticism, we become complicit too, right?”

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“They have to be called out for what they’re doing because if we allow this to continue without any sort of criticism, we become complicit too, right?”

Andy Knight, professor of international relations 

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Knight said universities should encourage critical thinking and protest movements as institutions of education. “Let people realize that there is something called human rights law to be protected, and therefore support human rights groups.”

He said we must then seriously consider investments. Whether MacEwan or the U of A, we should not have any investments linked to the purchase of weaponry for the Israeli government.

“Because if you want to be serious about this and we want to stop the war, we want to get the hostages back, and so on. We have to start targeting the investments that we make in these kinds of international activities,” Knight said.

“Especially when they become violations of the principles of international law.”

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Graphic by Forrester Toews