Enemy at the gates

A string of new technologies is promising to change the very character of war and is poised to take the nature of conflicts into uncharted waters

- Urvashi sarkar

THE world is burning.

In September 2024, thousands of pagers exploded in Lebanon in public streets, grocery stores and people's homes. The next day, walkie-talkies were blown up. At least 37 people died and 2,931 people were injured. The attacks were carried out by Israel to target Hezbollah supporters known to carry pagers and walkie-talkies for communication and planning military operations. Hezbollah, a Shia militant group and movement in Lebanon, against whom Israel has a long-standing armed conflict, has been using old-fashioned pagers and walkie-talkies to avoid interception and hacking by Israeli forces. Israel managed to embed explosives in the pagers, which then exploded in Lebanon and Syria. The dystopian attack was widely condemned, especially since it did not account for harm to civilians, and spotlighted concerns about the rise of new types of cyber warfare.

Calling the strikes “a terrifying violation of international law”, a joint statement by UN human rights experts warned that the attacks could constitute war crimes of murder, attacking civilians and launching indiscriminate attacks, in addition to violating the Right to Life.

In the Gaza Strip last year, quadcopters or small drones hovering in the night sky were heard mimicking sounds of crying infants and women. As Palestinians came out into the open to check the sounds, the quadcopters, which are remote-controlled, shot at them. Deploying military technology advances with the additional twist of psychological warfare is far beyond the legal, moral or ethical frameworks that govern the rules of war.