On September 17, 2024, an ambulance was surrounded at the entrance to the American University of Beirut Medical Center as cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah militants continued following explosions in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon.
Anwar Amro | AFP | Getty Images
Handheld radios used by Hezbollah detonated in southern Lebanon and southern Beirut suburbs on Wednesday, a security source and a witness said, a day after similar bombings via pagers further heightened tensions with Israel.
Three people were killed and dozens injured in the latest device explosion in Lebanon’s Bekaa region, the state news agency reported.
At least one of the explosions occurred near a funeral organized by Iran-backed Hezbollah for those killed the previous day, and thousands of pagers used by the group exploded across the country, wounding many of the group’s fighters.
The group, briefly thrown into disarray by a pager attack, said on Wednesday it had hit an Israeli artillery position with rockets, the first attack since explosions that injured thousands of the group’s members in Lebanon and sparked wider possibility of attack.
A security source said Hezbollah purchased the handheld radios five months ago and the pagers around the same time.
A senior Lebanese security source and another source told Reuters that the Israeli spy agency Mossad, which has a long history of sophisticated operations in foreign territories, was inside a pager imported by Hezbollah in the months before Tuesday’s blast. Explosives were planted.
Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad said on Wednesday that the death toll from Tuesday’s explosion had risen to 12, including two children. Tuesday’s attack wounded nearly 3,000 people, including many of the militant group’s fighters and Iran’s envoy in Beirut.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Walker Turk has called for an independent investigation into the pager bombing.
A Taiwanese pager manufacturer has denied it produced the device that exploded in an audacious attack, raising the possibility of an all-out war between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel.
Gold Apollo said the devices were manufactured under license by a company called BAC, headquartered in Budapest, the capital of Hungary.
revenge
There was no word yet on when Hezbollah would launch its latest rocket attack, but the group typically announces such attacks shortly after they are carried out, suggesting the group opened fire on Israeli artillery positions on Wednesday.
Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel, but the Israeli military declined to comment on the bombing. The two countries have been engaged in a cross-border war since the Gaza conflict broke out last October, fueling concerns that a broader Middle East conflict could drag down the United States and Iran.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi accused Israel of orchestrating a dangerous escalation on many fronts that would push the Middle East to the brink of regional war.
“Hezbollah wants to avoid a full-scale war,” said Mohanad Haq Ali of the Carnegie Center for the Middle East. “It still wants to avoid a war. But given the scale and the impact on families and civilians, there will be There is pressure for a stronger response.
Hezbollah, Iran’s most powerful proxy in the Middle East, said in a statement that it would continue to support Hamas in Gaza and that Israel should wait for a response to the pager “massacre” that left militants and others bleeding, Hospitalization or death.
A Hezbollah official said the explosion was the “biggest security breach” in the group’s history.
Video from the hospital seen by Reuters showed that the man had multiple injuries on his body, including some to his face, some missing fingers, and a gaping wound on his buttocks, probably where he wore a pager.
Several sources told Reuters the plot appeared to have been brewing for months. Since the Gaza war began, there have been a series of assassinations of Hezbollah and Hamas commanders and leaders that have been blamed on Israel.
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