Nine dead, hundreds injured after pager explosion in Lebanon

The death toll from the simultaneous explosion on Tuesday of pagers belonging to members of Hezbollah in Lebanon rose early in the evening with the announcement of the death of a ninth victim.

The Lebanese government and Hezbollah accuse Israel of being behind this “criminal aggression.”

“Eight people were killed and nearly 2,750 others injured,” including 200 in serious condition, Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad announced earlier at a press conference.

Most of the victims were injured “in the face, hand, stomach and even eyes,” the minister said. The “simultaneous” explosions of these boxes, which can receive simple messages and work via radio waves, were reported in the middle of the afternoon, at the same time as a large influx of wounded in hospitals in Beirut, Nabatieh, Saida and Tyre.

Among the wounded was Iran’s ambassador to Beirut, Mojtaba Amani, Iranian state television reported. Hezbollah vowed that Israel would receive “its just punishment.”

The first victim of this serial explosion was a ten-year-old girl, killed by the explosion of her father’s pager, the family of the young deceased and a source close to Hezbollah told a French news agency.

According to a source close to the Shiite movement of this news agency, the sons of two of its deputies, Ali Ammar and Hassan Fadlallah, are among the dead. In a statement published late in the afternoon on Telegram, Hezbollah promised Israel a “just punishment” following “this criminal aggression.”

Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary also denounced an “Israeli aggression,” according to comments reported by the French press. The Lebanese prime minister called a meeting of his cabinet to discuss the situation and held consultations with security forces.

Following the explosions, the Lebanese Ministry of Health called on citizens to get rid of their pagers and exercise extreme vigilance.

U.S. and other officials told The New York Times that Israel managed to hide small explosives in pagers purchased by Hezbollah in Taiwan and detonated them remotely on Tuesday, killing nine people and wounding nearly 2,800.

These sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, gave the American daily details on this unprecedented Israeli operation.

The small devices, manufactured by Gold Apollo in Taiwan, were intercepted by Israeli services before their arrival in Lebanon, according to these officials, whose nationalities were not given.

Several dozen grams of explosive material were inserted next to the battery with a trigger, the daily said.

At 3:30 p.m. Tuesday in Lebanon, a message appearing to come from the leadership of Hezbollah caused the device to beep for several seconds before triggering the explosive, according to the American daily, still citing several anonymous sources.

More than 3,000 units, mainly of the AP924 model, had been ordered by Hezbollah from the Gold Apollo company in Taiwan, these sources say.

The information from the American daily supports the theory, put forward Tuesday by several experts, according to which the Israeli services managed to infiltrate the Hezbollah logistics chain to plan this attack.

A source close to the movement had earlier indicated to AFP that “the beepers which exploded concern a shipment recently imported by Hezbollah of 1,000 devices”, which according to him appeared to have been “hacked at source”.