Escalation in Lebanon: 2,750 injured in explosions

Middle East trouble spot

Escalation in Lebanon: 2,750 injured in explosions

Suddenly hundreds of small communication devices, so-called pagers, explode at the same time in Lebanon. A connection with the tensions between Hezbollah and Israel is obvious.

The conflict between Israel and the Shiite Hezbollah militia continues to escalate: Around 2,750 people were injured and 9 people were killed in suspected coordinated explosions of hundreds of portable radio receivers in Lebanon. The condition of around 200 injured people is critical, said the acting Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad in the capital Beirut. Hezbollah blamed Israel for the simultaneous explosions of the so-called pagers and vowed retaliation for the “sinful aggression.”

Many Hezbollah fighters are said to be among the injured, including members of the elite Radwan force. High-ranking Hezbollah officials were also injured, a source close to the militia confirmed. According to local media, two of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah's bodyguards were also injured.

It was suspected that Israel might have deliberately detonated the devices as an attack on Hezbollah fighters. Israel's army initially did not comment on the incidents. The Israeli Kan broadcaster reported that the military and defense ministry assumed that Hezbollah would respond with military action against Israel. There were discussions about this in the evening at the military headquarters in Tel Aviv.

Security sources said Hezbollah had only recently received the pagers in a delivery. The Wall Street Journal, citing Hezbollah members, reported that hundreds of them had such devices. The devices were probably equipped with malware that would have caused them to overheat and explode.

Experts assumed that the pagers were a very important communication system for the militia. Hezbollah switched from cell phones to pagers for security reasons – among other things, because they cannot be used to determine your whereabouts. This – so the logic goes – would also make them less vulnerable to surveillance measures or electronic warfare attacks.

Videos from surveillance cameras in Lebanon showed small explosions occurring in supermarkets, for example. Some people lay on the ground afterwards. Images from hospitals showed crowded rooms with bleeding patients.

Such explosions also occurred in Syria, where Hezbollah and other militias loyal to Iran are active. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 14 Hezbollah members were injured.

Eyewitnesses reported panic in the streets of Beirut. Numerous ambulances were on duty. The Ministry of Health called on all hospitals to be on high alert and citizens to donate blood.

According to media reports, Iran's ambassador to Lebanon, Moschtaba Amani, was also said to have been injured when a pager exploded. The Iranian news agency Tasnim reported that this belonged to a bodyguard. Hezbollah is the most important non-state ally of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

After almost a year of constant fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, there have recently been increasing signs that the conflict could escalate into open war. The return of refugee Israeli citizens to their homes in the north of the country is now one of Israel's declared war goals – alongside the liberation of the hostages from the Gaza Strip and the destruction of Hamas.

The only way to get there is “a military operation,” Israel's Defense Minister Joav Galant said on Monday at a meeting with US mediator Amos Hochstein, according to his office. The possibility of a diplomatic solution to the conflict with Hezbollah is becoming increasingly remote because the militia has tied its fate to Hamas in the Gaza Strip and refuses to end the conflict, he said.

Since the Gaza war began almost a year ago, there have been almost daily confrontations between Hezbollah and the Israeli military in the border area. There were deaths on both sides as a result of the shelling – most of them were members of Hezbollah. Only on Tuesday, according to Israeli reports, three Hezbollah fighters were killed in an attack on a location in southern Lebanon.

Since then, a total of around 60,000 Israelis have had to leave their houses and apartments in many villages and the town of Kiriat Shmona in northern Israel. Many of those affected have been living in hotels paid for by the state for months. Dozens of houses and infrastructure were damaged in several towns in the Israeli border area. The military has always had a presence in the area. Since the beginning of the fighting with Hezbollah, there have also been army checkpoints on roads used by civilians. Thousands of people have also fled southern Lebanon to other parts of the country.