Hezbollah vows retaliation after pager explosions kill nine and injure almost 3,000
The simultaneous explosion across Lebanon of pagers used by Hezbollah has killed at least nine people and wounded about 2,800, including hundreds of members of the Iranian-backed Islamist movement, which accuses Israel of being responsible.
Tuesday's attack is an “extremely worrying escalation” in the conflict in the Middle East, the UN special coordinator for Lebanon said. Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert has urged all parties involved “to refrain from further actions (...) that could cause a larger conflagration”.
A source close to Hezbollah said on Tuesday that “hundreds of members” of the group were wounded by the simultaneous detonation of explosives in their pagers, a basic communication system used to prevent tracking, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, in southern Lebanon and in the eastern Bekaa plain.
It claimed that Israel was “entirely responsible” and said it would receive “just punishment” following “this sinful aggression”. Israel has not yet commented.
Extended objectives
Among the dead was a 10-year-old girl, killed when her father’s pager exploded, according to her family and a source close to Hezbollah, as well as the son of a Hezbollah MP. The group claimed two of its fighters were also killed. The Iranian ambassador to Beirut, Mojtaba Amani, was injured, Iranian television reported.
A Taiwanese company has denied reports in the New York Times that it manufactured the pagers. It said they were made in Europe by a company using its brand.
Israel has not commented on the explosions, which occurred in several Hezbollah strongholds, a few hours after announcing that it was extending the objectives of its war against Palestinian militants Hamas in the Gaza Strip to its northern border with Lebanon.
Since the start of the war, which was triggered on 7 October 2023 by Hamas’s bloody attack on Israel, the border area between Israel and Lebanon has been the scene of almost daily exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, a Hamas ally.
This has led to the displacement of tens of thousands of civilians on both sides. On Monday, the Israeli cabinet voted to add the return of evacuees as a war objective.
Lebanese soldiers stand guard as an ambulance transports wounded people to a hospital in Beirut, 17 September 2024 © PHOTO ANWAR AMRO / AFP
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