News Mania Desk/ Piyal Chatterjee / 18th September 2024
Hezbollah, a militant organization, vowed to exact revenge on Israel after charging it with setting off pagers around Lebanon on Tuesday, which resulted in the deaths of nine people and the injuries of almost 3,000 others, including fighters and Iran’s ambassador to Beirut.
The late-afternoon explosion of the pagers, which are portable communication devices used by Hezbollah and other groups in Lebanon, was denounced as “Israeli aggression” by Ziad Makary, the minister of information in Lebanon. Israel would get “its fair punishment” for the explosions, according to Hezbollah.
Since the beginning of the Gaza conflict in October, the Israeli military has been fighting Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, across international borders. When questioned about the detonations, the military declined to comment.
According to Lebanon’s health ministry, the number of fatalities increased from eight to nine on Tuesday night, while the number of injured stayed at 2,750.
In a previous statement, Hezbollah stated that a little child and at least two of its fighters had died.The pagers went off throughout the eastern Bekaa Valley, the southern suburbs of Beirut known as Dahiyeh, and southern Lebanon, all of which are strongholds for Hezbollah.
In one incident, a customer was paying at a grocery store when what looked to be a small portable device put next to the cashier exploded, according to closed-circuit camera footage obtained by regional television.Speaking under anonymity, a Hezbollah official described the event as the organization’s “biggest security breach” in almost a year of hostilities with Israel.
According to the New York Times, which quoted American and other officials informed on the operation, Israel concealed explosive devices in the Taiwan-made Gold Apollo pagers prior to their importation into Lebanon. The substance had a remotely triggered detonation switch implanted adjacent to the battery.
The pager explosions were described as a “escalation” that will only result in Israel’s “failure and defeat” by Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that is at war with Israel in Gaza.
In a statement, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the UN special coordinator for Lebanon, condemned the bombing and said that it “marked an extremely concerning escalation” in the violence.
Washington claimed it was unaware of the perpetrators of the bombings and denied any involvement. The United States has reiterated its calls for a diplomatic settlement of Israel-Lebanon disputes.
It pleaded with Iran, which has formed a “Axis of Resistance” against U.S. and Israeli hegemony in Yemen, Iraq, and with Hezbollah and other armed groups, to not use any incident to sow discord.
An Israeli military official stated that the chief of staff, Major General Herzi Halevi, met with top officers on Tuesday evening to review the situation, without specifically commenting on the explosions in Lebanon. He stated that “vigilance must continue to be maintained” but did not announce any changes to the policy.
This year, two people familiar with Hezbollah’s activities told Reuters that the fighters have been attempting to avoid Israeli location-tracking by utilizing pagers as a low-tech form of communication. A wireless communication device that receives and displays messages is called a pager.
According to Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency, Mojtaba Amani, Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, was hospitalized under observation after sustaining a “superficial injury” in Tuesday’s pager blasts. Reuters was unable to verify the report right away.
Hezbollah members who are the kids of senior armed group officials were among the dead, two security sources told Reuters. They added that among those slain was the son of Ali Ammar, a Hezbollah legislator in the Lebanese parliament.
Earlier on Tuesday, Hezbollah’s plan to kill a former senior defense officer in the coming days was thwarted, according to Israel’s domestic security service.
Hezbollah has stated that although it would like to avoid a full-scale confrontation with Israel, cross-border violence will only cease when the Gaza confrontation comes to an end. After months of negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the US, efforts to establish a Gaza truce are still at a standstill.
Ambulances raced through Beirut’s southern suburbs following Tuesday’s explosions, causing widespread fear. Witnesses claimed that they saw people with bloodied hands screaming in agony and motorcyclists racing to the emergency room at Mount Lebanon Hospital outside of Beirut.About forty injured persons were receiving treatment at the Nabatieh public hospital in the southern part of the nation, according to Hassan Wazni, the hospital’s director, who spoke with Reuters. The wounds included limb, eye, and face traumas.
