2024-09-17 19:09:35
Dozens of Hezbollah members were injured on Tuesday around 3:30 pm (2:30 pm in Paris) in Lebanon and Syria by the simultaneous explosion of their pagers, a common paging system before cell phones. Nine people were killed and nearly 2,800 were injured, according to Beirut’s health minister. The explosions were blamed on Israel by the Lebanese Islamist group. The Jewish state has not yet commented on these explosions.
Who are the victims?
In the southern suburbs of Beirut, in the south of Lebanon and in the Bekaa plain, “hundreds of members” of Hezbollah “were injured by the simultaneous explosion of their pagers,” announced a source close to the Islamist group. Nine people were killed and nearly 2,800 others were injured, said Firass Abiad, Beirut’s health minister. Most of the victims were injured “in the face, hands, stomach and even the face,” he explained.
Among the dead was a ten-year-old girl, killed in the east by the explosion of her father’s pager, according to her family and a source close to Hezbollah. The sons of two Hezbollah agents, Ali Ammar and Hassan Fadlallah are also believed to be dead. Iran’s ambassador to Beirut, Mojtaba Amani, was injured, Iranian television announced. An AFP reporter in the Bekaa saw numbers of injured people going to hospitals. Another in the southern Lebanese city of Saida reported dozens of ambulances arriving at hospitals.
In Syria, 14 members of the Pro-Iranian Hezbollah in Syria were also injured by the explosion of their pagers, at the same time as these devices exploded in Lebanon, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) said. A source close to Hezbollah confirmed that members of the pro-Iranian movement, sent to Syria to support the regime, were injured without specifying the number.
Israel is accused by Hezbollah and Hamas
The Lebanese Islamist party confirmed that Israel was “absolutely responsible” for the simultaneous explosions and assured that it would “receive its just punishment” following “this criminal act”. Hamas is also pointing in the direction of Israel. The ruling Islamist group in Gaza called the blast a “Zionist terrorist attack,” saying the attack did not distinguish “between resistance fighters and civilians.”
“The beepers that exploded are a concern of the recent importation by Hezbollah of 1,000 devices,” which seem to have been hacked at the source,” a source close to the movement told AFP. Experts, interviewed by Le Parisien try it out, also suggest tampering with the speaker by sending commands, so that they can overheat the batteries and cause them to explode.
Although Israel has not said anything about the attack, the United States has said that it was “not involved” in Tuesday’s explosion of pagers and that it had not been informed in advance of this attack, which was attributed to Israel by the Lebanese Islamist group . “At this point we are gathering information,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters. “We urge Iran not to use any single incident to try to bring instability and further problems in the region,” he continued.
Against a backdrop of tension
These explosions took place in several Hezbollah strongholds, hours after Israel announced that it was extending the targets of the war against Hamas in the Palestinian Gaza Strip to its northern border with Lebanon, including “the residents of the north (of Israel) returning home.” they. safely,” according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, let on October 7, 2023 by Hamas’ bloody attack against Israel, the regional border between Israel and Lebanon of events of almost daily exchange of fire between the Israeli army and Hezbollah , supported by Iran and ally of Hamas, which led to the displacement of thousands of civilians on both sides.
On Tuesday, an Israeli attack in Blida, on the border in southern Lebanon, left three people dead according to Lebanese authorities, including an Israeli soldier who said he had killed members of Hezbollah. The Lebanese have opened fire against military positions in northern Israel.
What is a pager?
Often in the West in the 1980s and 1990s before the advent of cell phones, pagers or “pagers” make it possible to receive short alarm messages or texts, and perhaps to send them. These small boxes use their own radio frequency and therefore without going through mobile telephone networks, which can experience interruptions and connection problems.
This is also one of the selling points of the company Spok, which also makes beepers: “Have peace of mind with the beer of the signal wears metal and steel, while the smartphone can see that it is stuck,” house -America’s work boasts on its site. Another benefit, a pager discourages attempts to spy. Hezbollah has asked its members not to use cell phones to avoid Israeli hacking. A strong group has established a system whereby they invite their members to join their branches.
#Dead #thousand #injured #simultaneous #explosion #pagers #Lebanon #Syria