Hundreds of Hezbollah members were injured Tuesday across Lebanon by the simultaneous explosion of their pagers, which killed eight people and was attributed to Israel by the Lebanese Islamist movement.
Israel has not commented on the explosions, which occurred in several Hezbollah strongholds hours after the country announced it was expanding the goals of its war against Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip to its northern border with Lebanon.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, triggered on October 7, 2023 by Hamas’ 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, supported by Iran and allied with Hamas, which have led to the displacement of tens of thousands of civilians on both sides.
A Source close to Hezbollah announced on Tuesday that “hundreds of members” of the movement “were injured by the simultaneous explosion of their pagers”, a radio messaging system, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, in southern Lebanon and in the eastern Bekaa plain, in the first incident of its kind in nearly a year.
“Eight people were killed and nearly 2,750 others injured,” Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said.
Hezbollah said Israel was “fully responsible” for the explosions and said it would “receive its just punishment” for “this criminal aggression.”
Among the dead was a ten-year-old girl killed in eastern Lebanon 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.
Iranian ambassador to Beirut, Mojtaba Amani, was injured, Iranian television reported.
An AFP correspondent in the Bekaa saw wounded people streaming into hospitals. Another in the southern Lebanese city of Saida reported dozens of ambulances arriving at hospitals.
The impact of the explosions on Hezbollah’s communications was not immediately clear.
A Source close to the movement told AFP that “the beepers that exploded concern a shipment recently imported by Hezbollah of 1,000 devices”, which appear to have been “hacked at Source”.
– “Military action” –
Israel had announced shortly before its decision to extend the aims of the war to the Israeli-Lebanese border, in order to allow the return of displaced people. The main stated objectives of the war in Gaza so far were the destruction of Hamas, in power since 2007 in the Palestinian territory, and the return of the hostages.
“The political and security cabinet has updated the aims of the war to include the safe return of the residents of the north (of Israel) to their homes,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Tuesday.
On Monday, during a meeting with a US envoy, Amos Hochstein, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that in the absence of a diplomatic solution, “the only remaining means to ensure the return of the residents of northern Israel to their homes” would be “military action.”
In this high-risk context, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected in Egypt on Wednesday to discuss a new compromise proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of dozens of hostages held there, according to the State Department.
Qatar said on Tuesday that efforts were continuing to try to reach a ceasefire.
– “Buffer zone” in Lebanon? –
On Tuesday, an Israeli strike in Blida, on the border in southern Lebanon, left three dead according to Lebanese authorities, with the Israeli army claiming to have killed members of Hezbollah. The Lebanese movement announced shots against military positions in northern Israel.
The Israeli military said several drones coming from Lebanon were intercepted as they fell in an open area.
For Michael Horowitz, a geopolitical expert at Le Beck, a security consultancy based in the Middle East, “without a ceasefire in Gaza, there will be no agreement on the border issue with Lebanon. For Israel, this means that it will probably have to prepare for a military solution, especially as the pressure mounts because tens of thousands of Israelis remain displaced.”
“There is a consensus (in Israel) that a war to completely eliminate Hezbollah will be extremely difficult, costly and dangerous because it can lead to a regional conflagration. The goal of a military operation would therefore be more limited, in particular to create a buffer zone in southern Lebanon,” he added.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas commandos carried out an unprecedented attack on Israeli soil, which resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.
Of the 251 people abducted during the attack, 97 are still being held in Gaza, 33 of whom have been declared dead by the army.
In retaliation, Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which it considers a terrorist organization, along with the European Union and the United States.
His army launched an offensive that left at least 41,252 dead, according to the Hamas government’s health ministry in Gaza, which did not detail the fighters and civilians killed.
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar said Monday that his movement was “prepared” to “wage a long war of attrition” against the Israeli army.
Israeli airstrikes targeted the besieged Palestinian territory before dawn on Tuesday, killing at least seven people, including three in a house in Gaza City in the north, according to the Civil Defense.
“This war has destroyed everything, our mental and physical health, our future and our dreams. It has separated us from our loved ones, destroyed everything beautiful in our lives,” exclaimed Alaa Halilo, a 32-year-old Palestinian woman displaced in Gaza City.
