Exploding pagers kill nine and injure thousands in suspected Israeli attack on Hezbollah
Israel is suspected of being behind an audacious attack on Hezbollah commanders after nine people were killed and 2,750 wounded by the simultaneous explosion of pagers.
Video footage showed Hezbollah members being struck in the body and face as the pagers, which they use to communicate, blew up after seemingly being booby-trapped en masse.
Around 200 of the injured were said to be in a critical condition after what Iran-backed Hezbollah described as its biggest security breach since cross-border fighting broke out in the wake of the Oct 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, Hezbollah’s Palestinian ally.
Iran’s ambassador to Beirut was among the injured. Lebanon’s prime minister and Hezbollah blamed Israel for the attacks, with the terror group vowing revenge. The US urged restraint from Iran in response.
It came hours after Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, announced that Israel was broadening its aims in the current conflict to include the return of thousands of its citizens to homes near the border with Lebanon, which had been evacuated because of constant missile attacks.
Until now, Israel’s stated objective had been to crush Hamas and bring home the hostages seized by its terrorists during the attacks that started the war in Gaza almost a year ago.
Fears of a full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah – which controls southern Lebanon – have been growing after Israel warned the US on Monday that the chance of a diplomatic solution to the conflict on its northern border was fading.
Mr Netanyahu has spoken of the need for a “fundamental change” to the security situation on the border.
It is unclear whether the pagers attack – for which Hezbollah said it held Israel “fully responsible” – was designed to weaken the terror group before a possible invasion or was simply a show of strength by the embattled Mr Netanyahu to appease hawks in his country.
Hezbollah responded by saying that Israel “will certainly receive its just punishment for this sinful aggression”.
The affected pagers were from a new shipment that was received by Hezbollah in the last few days, multiple sources reported. A Hezbollah official said hundreds of fighters had the devices.
The attack was co-ordinated for 3.30pm local time (1.30pm UK) and according to reports the pagers beeped for several seconds before exploding.
The pagers received a message that appeared as though it was coming from the leadership of Hezbollah, The New York Times reported, citing a US official.
Explosive material was hidden in pagers and shipped to Lebanon, according to the newspaper.
Officials said one to two ounces of explosive material were hidden in each pager next to the battery along with a switch that could remotely detonate the device.
About 3,000 AP924 pagers had been ordered from a company in Europe and many of them were tampered with before Hezbollah received them.
Hezbollah had instructed its members to avoid mobile phones after the Gaza war began and to instead rely on pagers to prevent Israel from intercepting communications.
Prof Alan Woodward, a cyber security expert at the University of Surrey, told The Telegraph: “A tiny amount of explosive can injure badly, especially when right next to the body. If this proves to be real, I don’t think it’s a cyber attack, but rather an old-fashioned explosive booby trap.
“I’ve heard of lithium ion batteries spontaneously igniting, but to make it happen on demand is a different matter entirely.”
Pager explosions also injured Hezbollah members in Syria, Iranian media reported. There were unconfirmed reports of deaths as well, and seven people reported to have been injured in Damascus.
The son of a Lebanese member of parliament was killed, while Mojtaba Amani, Iran’s ambassador to Beirut, and two of his bodyguards were injured when a pager exploded in Lebanon.
Video footage showed one man’s device appearing to explode in a bag slung over his shoulder while he shopped in a supermarket, and bleeding men were seen lying on the streets in the city of Baalbek.
Firas al-Abyad, Lebanon’s health minister, said more than 100 hospitals in Lebanon had received wounded patients after blasts across the country.
Among the dead was the 10-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member. The girl was killed when her father’s pager exploded as she was standing beside him, her family and a source close to Hezbollah said.
Explosions also occurred in the Dahiya neighbourhood in Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold where a top commander was assassinated by Israel in July, and in the eastern Bekaa Valley, according to a Hezbollah spokesman.
Lebanon’s foreign ministry said it had prepared “a complaint to submit to the United Nations Security Council,” as the country’s prime minister called it “a serious violation of our sovereignty”.
Israeli officials told The Telegraph they had been instructed not to comment on the attacks in Lebanon, but Topaz Luk, a close adviser of Mr Netanyhau, retweeted a post from an Israeli journalist who predicted that the prime minister would not launch a major attack in Lebanon before flying to New York next week. “This didn’t age well,” Mr Luk responded.
Mr Netanyahu’s office quickly issued a statement in which it said Mr Luk “hasn’t been serving as the prime minister’s spokesman for a few months now, and isn’t in the close circle of discussion”.
On Tuesday, the US said it was not aware in advance and had no involvement in the mass explosions as it urged restraint by Iran.
“I can tell you that the US was not involved in it, the US was not aware of this incident in advance and, at this point, we’re gathering information,” Matthew Miller, a State Department spokesman, told reporters. “We would urge Iran not to take advantage of any incident to try to add further instability and to further increase tensions in the region.”
Residents of three Israeli towns near the Lebanese border were asked to stay near bomb shelters shortly after the attacks in Lebanon because of the “unique security situation”.
The Foreign Office on Tuesday night called for “calm heads and de-escalation”.
A UN spokesman said the developments in Lebanon were extremely concerning, especially given the “extremely volatile” situation in the Middle East.
Mr Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his defence minister, held discussions at the defence ministry’s HQ at the Kirya base in Tel Aviv about how Israel should respond to a potential escalation by Hezbollah.
The prime minister said on Sunday that the “current situation” in the north, with daily attacks from Hezbollah, “will not continue”, adding: “This requires a change in the balance of forces on our northern border.”
Mr Gallant informed Lloyd Austin, his American counterpart, that hopes for a diplomatic solution were dwindling and a full-scale war was looming, blaming Hezbollah’s ongoing position of “tying itself” to Hamas.
“The trajectory is clear,” said Mr Gallant, indicating that Israel would have to go to war with Hezbollah to end the rocket and drone attacks. He had previously warned Hezbollah that Israel would take Lebanon “back to the Stone Age” in the event of a full-blown war.
Source » msn.com
