Blasts condemned as Hezbollah pagers kill 12, injure thousands

The European Union’s foreign policy chief has condemned the use of exploding pagers which claimed the lives of 12 people in Lebanon, including two children.

Exploding pagers claimed the lives of 12 people in Lebanon, including two children, the country’s health minister said on Wednesday, updating the toll a day after the blasts blamed on Israel.

AFP reported hundreds of the wireless devices exploded simultaneously across Lebanon on Tuesday, hours after Israel said it was broadening the aims of the Gaza war to include its fight against Hamas ally Hezbollah.

Israel has yet to comment on the unprecedented attacks.

On Wednesday, Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said 12 people were killed and between 2750 and 2800 others were wounded, revising the tolls up from nine dead.

“After checking with all the hospitals”, the toll was revised to “12 dead, including two children,” Abiad told a news conference.

The dead included a girl and a boy as well as four health workers from private hospitals in Beirut’s southern suburbs, he said.

One of the pagers explodes at a fruit market in Beirut.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief has condemned the explosions.

“Even if the attacks seem to have been targeted, they had heavy, indiscriminate collateral damages among civilians, including children among the victims,” Josep Borrell said.

“I consider this situation extremely worrying. I can only condemn these attacks that endanger the security and stability of Lebanon, and increase the risk of escalation in the region.”

Borrell added that the “European Union calls on all stakeholders to avert an all-out war, which would have heavy consequences for the entire region and beyond”.

Meanwhile, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi vowed on Wednesday to intensify Gaza peace talks in a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken aimed at salvaging the negotiations.

Blinken’s visit to Cairo came hours after the wave of deadly blasts targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon that further complicated the Gaza talks.

This marks Blinken’s 10th trip to the Middle East since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip nearly a year ago. No other regional stops, including Israel, were on his itinerary.

Following the 90-minute meeting, Sisi’s office said the pair discussed “ways to intensify joint efforts between Egypt, the US and Qatar to make progress on ceasefire negotiations and the exchange of hostages and detainees”.

Sisi also called for “decisive intervention to remove obstacles to the entry of huge amounts of aid” to Gaza and “ending Israeli violations in the West Bank”, it said.

Violence has surged in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the war broke out in Gaza, with Israel conducting large-scale raids in recent weeks.

Before the meeting, US officials said privately they did not expect any breakthroughs in Cairo, though Blinken would seek to keep up the pressure for a deal between Israel and Hamas.

After Cairo, Blinken is due to head to Paris to brief his French, British and Italian counterparts.

HEZBOLLAH: ‘ENEMY MUST AWAIT FOR ITS MASSACRE’

Israel has been accused of planting explosives in pagers that Hezbollah had ordered from Taiwan and then triggering them with a fake message in a deadly act of sabotage that killed at least nine people, including a young girl.

Hundreds of pagers blew up across Lebanon at the same time in the apparently co-ordinated attack targeting Hezbollah. Some news outlets have reported the death toll could be as many as 11.

The Israeli spy agency Mossad allegedly intercepted the shipment of pagers and placed Pentaerythritol tetranitrate inside the batteries, according the New York Times, citing unnamed US officials and other sources.

One of the exploded pagers in Lebanon.

A switch was embedded that could be triggered remotely to detonate the explosives and the pagers received a message at 3.30pm local time in Lebanon, activating the device.

The pagers had been ordered from Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo, the Times reported, adding they were tampered with by Israel before arriving into Lebanon.

A source close to Hezbollah, asking not to be identified, had previously told AFP that “the pagers that exploded concern a shipment recently imported by Hezbollah of 1000 devices,” which appear to have been “sabotaged at source.”

The Times reported some 3000 pagers were ordered from Gold Apollo, mostly its AP924 model.

“For Israel to embed an explosive trigger within the new batch of pagers, they would have likely needed access to the supply chain of these devices,” Brussels-based military and security analyst Elijah Magnier told AFP.

“Israeli intelligence has infiltrated the production process, adding an explosive component and remote triggering mechanism into the pagers without raising suspicion,” he said, raising the prospect the third party which sold the devices could have been an “intelligence front” set up by Israel for the purpose.

IRAN ACCUSES ISRAEL OF ‘MASS MURDER’

Iran has accused Israel of “mass murder” in reaction to the deadly pager blasts.

Foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said in a statement he “condemned the terrorist act of the Zionist regime... as an example of mass murder”.

Among those wounded in the pager blasts was Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani, with Iranian media reporting he suffered injuries “to the hand and the face.” State television said that Amani was only lightly injured.

The Iranian Red Crescent said on Wednesday it had dispatched “rescue teams and eye surgeons” to Lebanon to treat the wounded.

In his statement, Mr Kanani expressed solidarity with the families of those killed and wounded in the explosions including the Iranian ambassador.

“Combating the terrorist acts of the (Israeli) regime and the threats arising from them is an obvious necessity,” he said.

“It is necessary for the international community to act quickly in order to counter the impunity of the Zionist criminal authorities.”

HEZBOLLAH VOWS TO PUNISH ISRAEL

Hezbollah has vowed to punish Israel for the deadly pager explosive attack.

There has been no immediate comment from Israel on the wave of explosions that killed nine people, including the 10-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member, and wounded around thousands more.

On Wednesday, Hezbollah vowed in statement on Telegram it would continue its fight in support of Gaza while reiterating an earlier statement that it would avenge the blasts.

“This path is ongoing and separate from the difficult reckoning that the criminal enemy must await for its massacre on Tuesday,” the group said in a statement.

“We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression,” Hezbollah said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that Israel “will certainly receive its just punishment for this sinful aggression”.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah will make a previously unscheduled speech at 5pm (12am AEST) on Thursday, the group said.

AT LEAST NINE DEAD, MORE THAN 2800 INJURED

Lebanon’s health minister told state media at least nine people were killed and more than 2800 were injured in the ensuing carnage.

Shocking videos showed the moment of the blasts and hundreds of wounded people lying in the streets of Beirut.

Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was among the injured.

Hezbollah said it holds Israel “fully responsible” for the attack, adding they will receive “just punishment for this sinful aggression.”

The attack reached across the Middle East with Iran claiming seven were killed in Syria.

At least 200 more are thought to be in a critical condition, with injuries reported to the face, hands and stomach.

Ambulances are surrounded by people at the entrance of the American University of Beirut Medical Center. Picture: AFP

People react near an ambulance as the wounded are brought to a hospital in Beirut. Picture: AFP

Friends and relatives walk towards a hospital in Beirut where wounded people were transported. Picture: AFP

‘EVERY INTEL AGENCY IN THE WORLD WORRIED’

The opposition spokesman for home affairs, James Paterson, has told reporters the explosions will be a wake up call for the world’s intel agencies.

“Well, this is a highly sophisticated and very patient attack. It highlights a couple of interesting things. Firstly, that supply chain security is very important. Connected devices are highly risky. And probably every intelligence agency in the world is waking up this morning and asking themselves, how do we stop this happening to us?,” he said.

Mr Paterson also went on top defend Israel’s right to defend itself, if reports they are behind the explosions are true.

“If it is confirmed that Israel is behind this operation, it wouldn’t surprise me and I think they’ll be well within their rights, given what Hezbollah has done to them in return,” he said, adding “And this is just another example of why we have a very serious situation in the Middle East. Hezbollah is a terrorist organisation, is listed in its entirety in Australia and we should stand with our friends and allies in Israel in defending themselves against this attack.”

Senator James Paterson hold a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

In a social media post on Wednesday morning, Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi, an outspoken critic of the Israeli government, did not name Israel directly but said the attacks were “exactly the type of sickening warfare” that sparked last week’s violent pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Melbourne.

“The horrific pagers attack that has killed nine people, including a young child, and left thousands wounded across Lebanon is exactly the type of sickening warfare people in Naarm Melbourne were protesting against,” she said.

“The perpetrators must be held to account.”

Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi said the attack was ‘sickening warfare’. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

ISRAEL BRACES FOR RETALIATION

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu summoned Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and top security officials to prepare for possible escalation, according to Hebrew media.

The stunning attack came just hours after Shin Bet announced it foiled an attempted assassination of a former Israeli defence official in Tel Aviv.

Mr Netanyahu also reportedly held a special meeting with Mossad Director David Barnea shortly after Israel voted to broaden the aims of the war against Hamas in Gaza to include its fight against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The affected pagers were from a new shipment delivered in recent days to Hezbollah, according to people familiar with the matter quoted by The Wall Street Journal.

The pagers were reportedly called for a period of time before exploding to maximise causalities among those attempting to answer.

A man donates blood under a tent in Beirut's southern suburbs. Picture: AFP

Medics collect blood donations in Beirut's southern suburbs. Picture: AFP

Ambulances rush wounded people to a hospital in the southern Lebanese city of Saida. Picture: AFP

‘OLD FASHIONED EXPLOSIVE BOOBY TRAP’

A Hezbollah official speculated that malware may have caused the lithium-ion batteries in the devices to explode, adding that people felt the pagers heat up before they burst.

But cyber security expert Professor Alan Woodward, from the University of Surrey, told the UK’s Telegraph it was more likely an “old fashioned explosive booby trap”.

“A tiny amount of explosive can injure badly, especially when right next to the body,” he said. “I’ve heard of lithium-ion batteries spontaneously igniting but to make it happen on demand is a different matter entirely.”

The son of Lebanese MP Ali Ammar was killed by the pager explosion, according to Lebanese media.

A 10-year-old girl, as well as two Hezbollah terrorists, were also among the people confirmed dead by the Lebanese health minister.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu summoned top defence officials amid fears of escalation. Picture: AFP

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was not harmed, senior Hezbollah source told Reuters.

“Pagers belonging to employees of various Hezbollah units and institutions exploded,” the Iran-backed militant group said in a statement, adding it was “conducting a wide-ranging security and scientific probe” into the causes of the “simultaneous” blasts.

Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry says it “has begun preparing a complaint to submit to the United Nations Security Council” after thousands were injured when pagers blew up across the country.

The United Nations said the pager explosions are extremely concerning given the “extremely volatile” atmosphere in the region.