Israel booby-traps Hezbollah pagers; Ukraine hits Russia in Syria; Italy orders F35s
(Originally publishsed Sept. 18 in “What in the World“) After a warning by its defense minister, Israel appears to have launched a wave of pager strikes against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon.
At least 11 people were killed and thousands injured Tuesday when pagers used by Hezbollah members in Lebanon and Syria exploded almost simultaneously. The group reportedly bought the Taiwan-made pagers in February to replace cellphones it feared were easy for Israel to track. But Israel’s Mossad security agency managed to booby-trap them with tiny amounts of explosives rigged to detonate on command. Among the injured was the ambassador to Lebanon from Iran, which has been vowing retaliation for Israel’s July assassination in Tehran of Hamas’ political leader.
Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant told a White House representative Monday that an attack would be the only way to enable Israelis to return to their homes along the norther border. Hezbollah started firing rockets into the area after war broke out in Gaza last October, sparking near-daily retaliatory clashes between both sides that have forced residents to flee. Israel has been using personal communications devices as bombs since 1972.
While the White House has been working to keep the war from spreading to southern Lebanon, the clashes have reportedly been intensifying in recent weeks. Given that Iran has failed to follow through on its threat to retaliate, the U.S. even let one of two aircraft carriers, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, leave the region.
No surprise: Hezbollah vowed to retaliate against Israel for the pager attack.
Iran, while still not retaliating, has instead busied itself shipping missiles to Russia, according to the White House. Also shipping missiles and artillery to Russia is North Korea. As part of its ongoing war against marine life in the Sea of Japan, Pyongyang launched short-range missiles into that body of water Wednesday for the second time in a week. Last Thursday, if fired several missiles into the Sea of Japan after a month of respite. Pyongyang said it was testing a new rocket-launch system.
Russia, meanwhile, has stepped up its aerial attacks on Kyiv, with a wave of 56 attack drones Monday night. Ukrainian air-defense forces managed to shoot down 53 of those. The attack appears to be part of an escalation in missile and drone attacks against cities across Ukraine in recent weeks as Russia mounts a counteroffensive against Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk province. With a million Ukrainians and Russians now killed in the war, however, most of the fighting is now concentrated along the front lines in Donetsk province.
But the war isn’t isolated to Donetsk—or even Ukraine. Ukrainian special forces on the weekend launched a surprise attack on a Russian base in Syria. The attack was apparently not the first such operation Ukraine has conducted in Syria, where U.S. forces are also operating against remnants of Islamic State and in frequent retaliatory strikes against Iran-backed militias. The Ukrainian operation was reportedly aimed at knocking out a test facility for Russian drones.
This raises a lot of questions: how did the Ukrainian commandos get to Syria, where do they get their intelligence, and where do they get air support and other logistical help? It also raises the distinct possibility that, when U.S. and Russia finally do come into direct conflict over Ukraine, it won’t be in Ukraine or even in Eastern Europe. It could take place in Syria. It has happened before.
Italy announced plans to buy 25 more F-35s, raising its force of the fighter jets to 115. Like its fellow members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Italy is boosting its defense spending, now at only 1.6% of its GDP.
After spending a record $259 billion on defense in 2022, European nations likely spent $291 billion on weapons in 2023. But the prospect of Trump’s reelection may force NATO members to go even further. Italy’s announcement follows the U.S. State Dept.’s approval of Romania’s purchase of 32 F-35 fighters for $7.2 billion.
The Netherlands is also boosting its military outlays. The Dutch aim to raise their defense spending by roughly 10% next year, with a goal of doubling its military outlays from their 2022 levels. On its shopping list are F-35 fighter jets, as well as drones, frigates, helicopters, and tanks. And Denmark has more than doubled its defense spending in the past decade, putting it in third place behind Ukraine and Poland in terms of accelerating military spending, according to the latest data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.