Numerous members of the Hezbollah militia were seriously injured when their pagers exploded. The incident could further inflame the already tense conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
Suspected coordinated explosions of portable radio receivers – so-called pagers – have injured 2,750 people and killed nine people in Lebanon. Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad announced this at a press conference in the capital Beirut.
The pro-Iranian terrorist militia Hezbollah blames Israel for the explosions. “We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression,” the militia said on Tuesday. Israel will “certainly receive its just punishment for this sinful aggression.”
According to information from Tehran, the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon was also injured. Iranian state television reported on Tuesday that Ambassador Moschtaba Amani himself told the broadcaster that he was fine despite the injury and that there was “no danger” to him.
Videos from surveillance cameras showed small explosions occurring in supermarkets, for example. Some people lay on the ground afterwards.
Hezbollah said two of its members and a girl were killed and many other people were injured. Members of the Radwan Force, an elite Hezbollah unit, are said to have been among the injured. In addition, high-ranking Hezbollah representatives were also said to have been injured, as a source close to the militia confirmed. The militia said the reasons for the simultaneous explosions were being investigated.
As the Wall Street Journal reports, the pagers came from a delivery that Hezbollah recently received. Hundreds of fighters have such devices, the newspaper reported, citing an unnamed Hezbollah representative. He also suspected that the devices were equipped with malware that would have caused them to overheat and explode. Experts in the Israeli media assumed that the pagers were a very important communication system for the militia.
Since the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Islamist Hamas began almost a year ago, there have been almost daily military confrontations between the Israeli army and Hezbollah in the border area between Israel and its northern neighbor Lebanon.
Since then, a total of around 60,000 Israelis have had to leave their houses and apartments in many villages and the city of Kiriat Shmona in northern Israel. Many of those affected have been living in hotels in the country 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. There are currently increasing signs that the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon could escalate into open war. The return of the 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.
