(Beirut) The Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah, shaken by two waves of deadly explosions targeting its transmission systems in Lebanon, is awaiting a speech on Thursday by its leader who is due to comment on these unprecedented attacks attributed to Israel.
The explosions, which exacerbated fears of a full-scale war, left more than 30 dead on Tuesday and Wednesday, including members of the movement, and some 3,200 injured.
The leader of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, who was not injured in the attacks according to a source close to the movement, will speak Thursday at 5 p.m. (10 a.m. Eastern time).
Israel has not commented on the attacks, which came just after Israel announced it was expanding its war aims against the Palestinian Hamas – backed by Hezbollah – to the northern border with Lebanon, to allow the return of displaced people in the north of the country.
On Tuesday, simultaneous explosions of pagers, a radio messaging system used by the pro-Iranian Islamist movement, left twelve dead and between 2,750 and 2,800 injured, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.
“Center of gravity”
The next day, the second wave of explosions “targeting walkie-talkies” left 20 dead and more than 450 injured, according to the same source.
PHOTO ASSOCIATED PRESS
The explosions, which exacerbated fears of a full-scale war, left more than 30 dead on Tuesday and Wednesday, including members of the movement, and some 3,200 injured.
Hezbollah on Thursday deplored the death of 20 of its members killed, according to a source close to the movement, in “walkie-talkie explosions” the day before.
The explosions of the last two days are the “biggest blow ever dealt to the pro-Iranian formation” by Israel, according to a source close to Hezbollah.
Hezbollah members’ pagers and walkie-talkies exploded simultaneously on Tuesday and Wednesday as Hezbollah members were at home, shopping or attending funerals.
The main objectives displayed so far by Israel have been the destruction of Hamas, which has been in power in Gaza since 2007, and the return of hostages held in the Palestinian territory since the bloody attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on October 7 on Israeli soil, which triggered the war in Gaza.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday that the “center of gravity” of the war is moving “toward the north” where near-daily deadly exchanges of fire with Hezbollah have displaced tens of thousands of residents on both sides of the border.
“Extremely worrying escalation”
“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.
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.
Charles Lister, an expert at the Middle East Institute, estimated that “the Mossad (Israeli foreign intelligence service) has infiltrated the supply chain” of Hezbollah.
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.
The police and the Shin Bet (internal intelligence) also announced on Thursday that an Israeli citizen had been arrested for having been recruited by Iran to prepare assassinations of Israeli personalities including Benjamin Netanyahu.
According to them, the man was offered to kill Israeli figures in revenge for the assassination in Tehran on July 31 of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Iran had blamed the assassination on Israel, which has not commented.
The UN Security Council will meet urgently on Friday to discuss the series of explosions in Lebanon.
Turkey accused “Israel of extending the war to Lebanon”, while Berlin, the UN and Washington warned against an “escalation”.
Meeting in Paris
Representatives of American, French, German, Italian and British diplomacy were due to meet in Paris on Thursday to take stock of the state of negotiations for a truce in Gaza and the situation in Lebanon, according to diplomatic sources.
During a brief visit to Cairo on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Israel and Hamas to show “political will” to reach a ceasefire agreement after months of fruitless negotiations.
Meanwhile, the war continues unabated in the besieged Palestinian territory, which is suffering a humanitarian catastrophe.
Five Palestinians were killed in an overnight strike on an apartment in Gaza City, according to the Civil Defense in Gaza. Two others were killed in the bombing of a house in the Jabaliya refugee camp, the same source said.
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.