Since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, Hezbollah has opened a front on the border with Israel, claiming to support Hamas.
Israel has not commented on the explosions, but the issue has been front-page news in its media. According to Amos Harel of the left-wing daily Haaretz, the explosions of the Lebanese movement’s transmitters have put “Israel and Hezbollah on the brink of all-out war.”
“Preprogrammed to explode”
For his part, the head of Lebanese diplomacy, Abdallah Bou Habib, estimated that Tuesday’s attack could be the harbinger of a wider war in the Middle East.
A source close to Hezbollah told AFP that “the beepers that exploded came from a shipment recently imported by Hezbollah of 1,000 devices.”
According to a preliminary investigation by Lebanese authorities, “the devices were pre-programmed to explode and contained explosive materials placed next to the battery,” a Lebanese security official told AFP.
Charles Lister, an expert at the Middle East Institute, estimated on X that “the Mossad (Israeli foreign intelligence service) has infiltrated the supply chain” of Hezbollah.
The UN Security Council will meet urgently on Friday to discuss the series of explosions in Lebanon.
The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, condemned on Wednesday the “attacks” on pagers, saying he was “extremely concerned” by the situation. The UN deplored an “extremely worrying escalation” and Washington warned against any “escalation”.
Hamas has accused Israel of being responsible for the new wave of explosions in Lebanon, calling them a “threat” to regional stability.
Israel had announced its decision to extend the war’s objectives to the Israeli-Lebanese border, in order to allow the return of displaced people in northern Israel.
The main objectives stated so far have been the destruction of Hamas, which has been in power in Gaza since 2007, and the return of the hostages held in the Palestinian territory.
“We are carrying out our tasks simultaneously” in the north and the south, and “our task is clear: to ensure the safe return of the northerners to their homes,” Gallant stressed. His remarks were echoed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Chief of Staff Gen. Herzi Halevi in separate statements.
“Political will”
In this explosive context, the American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, visiting Cairo, called on Israel and Hamas to show “political will” to reach a ceasefire agreement, after months of fruitless negotiations.
For their part, representatives of American, French, German, Italian and British diplomacy will meet on Thursday in Paris to take stock of the state of negotiations for a truce in Gaza and the situation in Lebanon, according to diplomatic sources.
Meanwhile, the war continues unabated in the besieged Palestinian territory, which is suffering a humanitarian catastrophe.
At least five people were killed on Wednesday by an Israeli airstrike on a school converted into a shelter for displaced people in a neighborhood in eastern Gaza City (north), according to the Gaza Civil Defense.
The army confirmed the strike, saying Hamas fighters were using the school “to plan and carry out terrorist activities.”
On Wednesday, Canada announced new sanctions to “combat the terrorist activities” of Hamas and “thwart its financial networks,” as well as against “extremist” Israeli settlers who have committed “acts of violence” against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank.
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 Israeli figures that include hostages who died or were killed in captivity in the Gaza Strip.
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.
More than 41,272 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in the Gaza Strip, the majority of them civilians, according to data from the Hamas government’s health ministry in Gaza, deemed reliable by the UN.
