The United States claims it did not know. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken denied on Wednesday, September 18, reports that his country was involved in the pager explosions in Lebanon on Tuesday. Hezbollah, whose members were hit, accused Israel of being behind the attack, which left twelve dead and at least 2,750 injured, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. Some victims “were transferred to Syria” neighbor, while “Others will be evacuated to Iran”he said. Follow our live feed.
EU condemns attacks. “I can only condemn these attacks which endanger the security and stability of Lebanon, and increase the risk of escalation in the region.”reacted the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell, saying “extremely concerned” by the situation. “Although these attacks appear to have been targeted, they have caused serious and indiscriminate collateral damage to civilians, including children.” he denounced.
Iran accuses Israel of “mass killing”. The Islamic Republic “strongly condemned as a mass killing the terrorist act of the Zionist regime in Lebanon, targeting Lebanese citizens”assured the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement on Wednesday.
Hezbollah has no intention of laying down its arms. The Islamist movement said on Wednesday that it “will continue” its support operations in Gaza, despite the deadly wave of pager explosions that targeted it on Tuesday and which it blames on Israel. This attack left at least nine dead and 2,800 injured, including members of Hezbollah. The Shiite movement specified, in a statement published on Telegram, that this support for the Palestinians would be “[distinct] of the difficult assessment that the criminal enemy [Israël] must wait for his Tuesday massacre”. Israel has not yet reacted.
A Taiwanese company denies manufacturing the pagers. Taiwanese company Gold Apollo on Wednesday denied reports that it manufactured the pagers that exploded. “These are not our products”company director Hsu Chin-kuang told reporters in Taipei, responding to reports from the New York Times.