(Beirut) Lebanese Hezbollah vowed Wednesday to continue its operations in support of Palestinian Hamas and to punish Israel, the day after an unprecedented attack that targeted it across Lebanon.
On Tuesday, simultaneous explosions of pagers used by the pro-Iranian Islamist movement left 12 dead, including two children, and between 2,750 and 2,800 injured, according to a new report from the Lebanese Health Minister on Wednesday.
Firass Abiad said just under 300 wounded were in a “critical situation.” Some of the wounded have been transferred to Syria and others will be evacuated to Iran, he said.
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 Hamas in the Gaza Strip to its northern border with Lebanon.
The day after the war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, Hezbollah opened a front on the border with Israel, claiming to support Hamas. Since then, deadly exchanges of fire have been almost daily, leading to the displacement of tens of thousands of residents on both sides of the border.
A source close to Hezbollah explained on Tuesday that “hundreds of members” of the Lebanese formation had been injured by the explosion of their pagers, a radio messaging system, in the southern suburbs of Beirut as well as in the south and east of Lebanon.
Hezbollah accused Israel of being “fully responsible” for the attack, warning that it would “receive its just punishment.” It reaffirmed on Wednesday that it “will continue” to carry out support operations in Gaza despite the unprecedented attack.
Hezbollah’s leader is scheduled to speak at 5 p.m. ET on Thursday. Iran has denounced it as a “mass killing.”
“Indescribable”
Hussein, a shop owner in the southern city of Tyre who asked to be identified only by his first name, said he was sitting in his shop on Tuesday when he heard an explosion nearby.
A man “fell to the ground and started screaming. More than ten people collapsed and no one knew what was happening, we looked at the sky [en nous demandant] Where did the strikes come from? But there was no plane.”
When he arrived at the hospital, he spoke of “indescribable” scenes. “One person had lost a hand, another had his face covered in blood. […] There was blood everywhere.”
Among the dead was the son of a Hezbollah MP. Iran’s ambassador to Beirut, Mojtaba Amani, was wounded, according to Iranian television.
Lebanese Education Minister Abbas Halabi announced the closure of schools and universities on Wednesday.
PHOTO AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Lebanese rushed to donate blood after simultaneous pager explosions.
“Mossad Infiltration”
A source close to the Lebanese formation told AFP that “the pagers which exploded concern a shipment recently imported by Hezbollah of 1000 devices”, which appear to have been “hacked at the source”.
“According to the video recordings […]a small plastic explosive was certainly hidden next to the battery [des téléavertisseurs] for remote triggering by sending a message,” said Charles Lister, an expert at the Middle East Institute (MEI), on X.
For him, “the Mossad [service de renseignement extérieur israélien, NDLR] infiltrated the supply chain.”
The head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell condemned the “attacks” on pagers on Wednesday, saying he was “extremely concerned” by the situation. The UN had deplored an “extremely worrying escalation” on Tuesday.
Israel announced on Tuesday 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 – in power in Gaza since 2007 and which Israel considers a terrorist organisation, as do the European Union and the United States – and the return of the hostages held in the Palestinian territory.
German airline Lufthansa has announced the suspension of its flights to and from Tel Aviv and Tehran until at least Thursday. Air France has suspended its flights to Beirut and Tel Aviv, also until September 19.
The Israeli army said on Wednesday that it had struck the day before an infrastructure “in which terrorists were operating” in Majdal Selm, in the south of Lebanon, and during the night other Hezbollah “sites” in five sectors in the south of the country.
Blinken in Cairo
In this very tense context, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met in Cairo with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who pledged to intensify “joint efforts between Egypt, the United States and Qatar to make progress in negotiations on the ceasefire and the exchange of hostages and prisoners.”
After months of fruitless negotiations, Washington said it was still working with mediators Qatar and Egypt to finalize a proposed deal that would suit both sides.
PHOTO EVELYN HOCKSTEIN, ASSOCIATED PRESS
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (front, left) visits Cairo.
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 launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip that left at least 41,272 dead, according to the Hamas government’s health ministry in Gaza, which did not detail the fighters and civilians killed.
The war, which began almost a year ago, has seen no respite in the Palestinian territory, which is under siege and hit by a humanitarian catastrophe.
According to the Gaza Civil Defense, two people were killed and eight others injured in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City on Tuesday night.
The Israeli army also blew up several houses in Bureij and the Zahra area in central Gaza, according to the same source.
Four soldiers were killed in fighting in Gaza on Tuesday, the Israeli army said on Wednesday, adding that six others were wounded, three seriously.