Amid Air Strikes and Rockets, an SMS From the Enemy
WiredAt the start of September, Nour was having an ordinary evening at home in Beirut—eating pumpkin seeds and watching Netflix—when the SMS hit her device like the smartphone version of a brick through her window. “Israel,” she says, “that’s their tone.” The Israeli military did not reply to WIRED’s question about whether they were the source of the message. It’s unclear how many other people received the SMS threat, although Nour says she saw screenshots on social media of the same message. She remembers picking up the landline to hear a robotic voice announce a message that started with the words: “Dear Lebanese people.” That call followed a monthlong war, which killed more than 1,000 people and forced 900,000 to flee their homes. As Lebanese people check on the safety of their family and friends, “most people are now more attached to their phones than usual,” says Mohamad Najem, executive director of the Beirut-based digital rights group SMEX.