A massive wave of exploding handheld pagers across Lebanon and parts of Syria on Tuesday killed at least nine people and wounded more than 2,700 others, including Hezbollah fighters, medics and Iran’s envoy to Beirut, government and Hezbollah officials said.
Lebanese officials and Hezbollah blamed Israel for what appeared to be a near-simultaneous and remote attack that threatens to further inflame tensions between the two countries and the wider Middle East. The Israeli military declined to comment.
Lebanon’s health minister, Firas Abiad, said at least nine people were killed, including an eight-year-old girl, and 2,750 wounded — 200 of them critically.
Hezbollah officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to the Associated Press and Reuters said two of its fighters were killed and others were injured.
The Hezbollah official told Reuters the detonation of the pagers was the “biggest security breach” the group had seen in nearly a year of conflict with Israel.
What happened?
The wave of explosions lasted around an hour after the initial detonations, which took place about 3:45 p.m. local time (1345 GMT). It was not immediately clear how the devices were detonated.
The pagers that exploded had been newly acquired by Hezbollah after the group’s leader ordered members to stop using cell phones, warning they could be tracked by Israeli intelligence, the Associated Press and Reuters reported. A Hezbollah official told The Associated Press the pagers were a new brand the group had not used before.
Regional broadcasters aired CCTV footage that showed what appeared to be a small handheld device placed next to a grocery store cashier spontaneously exploding. In other footage, an explosion appeared to knock out someone standing at a fruit stand at a market area.
Photos and videos from Beirut’s southern suburbs circulating on social media and in local media showed people lying on the pavement with wounds on their hands or near their pants pockets.
Reuters and AP reported widespread panic in the streets of the capital Beirut and large parts of southern Lebanon, with ambulances and motorcycles rushing through the streets and toward emergency rooms.
In hospitals, patients were being treated for injuries to the hands, face, eyes and limbs, while groups of people huddled at the entrances to check on people they knew who were wounded.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry called on all hospitals to be on alert to take in emergency patients and for people who own pagers to get away from them. It also asked health workers to avoid using wireless devices.
Who was killed and injured?
Reuters, citing security sources, reported many of those hurt included Hezbollah fighters who are the sons of top officials from the armed group. One of the fighters killed was the son of a Hezbollah member of the Lebanese parliament, Ali Ammar, an official told the AP and Reuters.
Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was not hurt in the explosions, the group said.
Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, suffered a “superficial injury” from an exploding pager and was being treated at a hospital, the Iranian state-run IRNA news agency and semi-official Fars news agency said.
The Lebanese Red Cross said more than 50 ambulances and 300 emergency medical staff were dispatched to help in the evacuation of victims.
The state-run National News Agency said hospitals in southern Lebanon, the eastern Bekaa Valley and Beirut’s southern suburbs — all areas where Hezbollah has a strong presence — had called on people to donate blood of all types.
The news agency reported that in Beirut’s southern suburbs and other areas “the handheld pagers system was detonated using advanced technology, and dozens of injuries were reported.”
Who was involved?
The Israeli military has not commented on the incident, but the Lebanese government and Hezbollah have claimed Israel was behind the attack.
“We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression that also targeted civilians,” Hezbollah said, adding that Israel will “for sure get its just punishment.”
The Lebanese foreign ministry described the explosions as a “dangerous and deliberate Israeli escalation” which it said had been “accompanied by Israeli threats to expand the war towards Lebanon on a large scale.”
U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller would not offer an assessment on who was behind the explosions “one way or another” when pressed by reporters at a Tuesday briefing. He said the U.S. had no involvement or advance notice of the apparent attack.
The explosions came hours after Israel’s internal security agency said it had foiled an attempt by Hezbollah to kill a former senior Israeli security official using a planted explosive device that could be remotely detonated.
Israel has killed Hamas militants in the past with booby trapped cellphones. Hezbollah is aligned with Hamas and both militant groups receive backing from Iran.
Israel has a long history of carrying out deadly operations behind enemy lines.
More recently, in January, Saleh Arouri, a senior Hamas official, was killed in an airstrike on a Beirut apartment building blamed on Israel. In July, Israel assassinated Hezbollah’s top commander in another airstrike. Hours later, Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ supreme leader, died in a mysterious explosion in Iran, also blamed on Israel.
Will tensions rise further?
Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in near-daily clashes across their shared border for months as Hezbollah tries to force Israel to end its military offensive against Hamas in Gaza.
The clashes have killed hundreds in Lebanon and dozens in Israel and displaced tens of thousands on both sides of the border.
The U.S. and its allies have dispatched diplomats to the region to try and reduce tensions and avoid a full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah, warning of the broader implications for the Middle East.
Hezbollah has said it wants to avoid all-out conflict with Israel but that only an end to the Gaza conflict will stop the cross-border clashes. Gaza ceasefire efforts remain deadlocked after months of talks mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the U.S.
United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric called Tuesday’s explosions extremely concerning, especially given the “extremely volatile” context.
Miller urged Iran not to “take advantage” of any instability created by the explosions, particularly if its ambassador Amani was wounded. The U.S. issued similar warnings to Iran after Haniyeh’s death in July, which sparked fears of a direct Iranian attack on Israel.
The White House would not speculate when asked if the incident marked “the beginning of something new” in the region.
“We’ve been very clear about the tensions in the Middle East and wanting to make sure that we do everything that we can to lessen the tension there,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
—With files from the Associated Press and Reuters