The Lebanese resistance group urged anyone in Lebanon who comes across a leaflet to “destroy it immediately.”
The Israeli IDF headquarters in the Kirya compound in Tel Aviv. (DoD)
By Jessica Corbett
Common Dreams
As the death toll from the Israeli bombing of Lebanon topped 550 on Tuesday, Hezbollah warned that Israel is dropping leaflets with barcodes allegedly designed to extract information from electronic devices in the Bekaa Valley.
“The Zionist enemy is dropping leaflets with a barcode on them in the Bekaa region, and may drop them in other places,” Hezbollah’s media office said in a statement. “Please do not open or circulate the barcode.”
The Lebanese political party and paramilitary group urged anyone in Lebanon who comes across a leaflet to “destroy it immediately because it is very dangerous and withdraws all the information you have.”
Hezbollah warns Lebanese public not to scan "very dangerous" QR codes on leaflets dropped by Israeli warplanes in various areas across Lebanon. "This code can extract all the information on your devices and poses a threat to your safety" https://t.co/A65umxF3YK
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) September 24, 2024
Just before launching this bombing campaign, Israel detonated thousands of pagers and other electronic devices across Lebanon, an operation that rights experts characterized as terrorism.
Reuters noted Tuesday that “Hezbollah’s media office did not say if anything else was written on the flyers” and “there was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.”
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a Tuesday social media post directed at Lebanese citizens that “our war is not with you, our war is with Hezbollah,” according to a translation from The Independent.
Hezbollah is “leading you to the brink of the abyss… Rid yourself from Nasrallah’s grip, for your own good,” he added, referring to Hassan Nasrallah, the group’s leader. “Anyone who has a missile in their living room and a rocket in their garage will not have a home.”
In a similar message posted later in English, Netanyahu said, “Get out of harm’s way, now.”
Hezbollah warns of malicious Israeli barcodes dropped in Beqaa Valley
"We urge you not to open or distribute the [QR code] link, as it is extremely malicious," the Resistance movement said in a statement. https://t.co/EwxR3QJ1u5
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) September 24, 2024
Drop Site News reported Monday that residents of southern Lebanon “began receiving text messages and calls with audio recordings warning them to leave their homes and villages,” and the Israel Defense Forces “Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee also posted several ominous messages” on social media.
Avichay Adraee, head of of the Israeli military’s Arab media division. (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)
Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad said Tuesday that at least 50 children and 95 women are among the 558 people who have been killed in Israeli attacks since Monday morning, according to Middle East Monitor. Another 1,835 have been injured.
“The majority of the victims in the Israeli attacks since Monday morning are defenseless civilians in their homes,” the minister said, refuting Israel’s claims that it is targeting Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said on social media Monday that
“the escalating crisis in Lebanon is frightening… The toll on civilians is unacceptable. Political leaders must bring solutions. An end to the hostilities is urgently needed.”
Grandi added Tuesday that “Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon are now relentlessly claiming hundreds of civilian lives,” including at least two of his colleagues.
Speaking at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, U.S. President Joe Biden said that “full-scale war is not in anyone’s interest” and despite the recent escalation in Lebanon, “a diplomatic solution is still possible — in fact, it remains the only path to lasting security.”
The United States is Israel’s most significant ally, and Biden has faced global criticism — including charges of complicity in genocide in the Gaza Strip — for continuing to send weapons to the Israeli forces over the past year.
As Common Dreams reported Monday, the bombing campaign in Lebanon has elevated calls for the U.S. to impose an arms embargo.
Jessica Corbett is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.
This article is from Common Dreams.
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Abusing technology like this will see people shy away from future tech when they roll it out. Some will stick to the minimum tech-level needed to conduct life and business. I always disable the bluetooth on my computers and speakers and I won’t even consider a Smart TV because I simply don’t know if it can spy on what I do and say, who I phone and what websites I visit. And now smartphone cameras can scan harmful barcodes and presumably QR codes? I was at great advantage using only a dumb phone and didn’t even know it.
Israeli media is apparently estimating that the opening two days of ‘The War That Is Not a War’ cost over $billion.
At this rate, that makes $3.5billion a week. $14billion a month.
It was said that the single night of ‘defense’ against the Iranian response to the bombing of their embassy in Damascus cost over $2billion.
Work those multiple jobs America, and that extra overtime, and please America, pay your taxes early next year.
How much lower will israel sink???
Why are you featuring in the article a photo of Avichay Adraee, head of of the Israeli military’s Arab media division, blantantly complicit in Israeli war crimes, thus a war criminal?
Speaking at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, U.S. President Joe Biden said that “full-scale war is not in anyone’s interest” and despite the recent escalation in Lebanon, “a diplomatic solution is still possible — in fact, it remains the only path to lasting security.”
The senile old git is trying his hand at standup comedy then?
Joe Biden’s ‘envoy’ to the Lebanon-Israel situation is Adam Hochstein. He has in the past,if IIRC, held dual citizenship with USA and Israel, although I think I saw that he has renounced his Israeli citizenship, possibly to get or keep this job.
Back when he was first coming to the region to ‘mediate’ Israel’s claiming of the natural gas off Lebanon’s coast, there were, IIRC, articles in Lebanese press about whether or not it would even be legal for anyone in Lebanon to meet with him. Lebanon still has laws against ‘normalization’ with the country that repeatedly invades it, which includes legal bans on talking with Israelis. And there were at least rumors that in the 2006 invasion that Mr. Hochstein might have been one of the ‘boots on the ground’.
The American idea of a neutral mediator for a peaceful resolution.
Wondering how Israel has the cell phone numbers to send text messages ?
Scanning a barcode is pretty scary, it could not only extract information but
also track the owner’s activities and whereabouts. Yikes.