Hand-held radios, solar systems detonate across Lebanon a day after pager attack

Beirut: Hand-held radios used by Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah have detonated across Lebanon’s south and in Beirut’s southern suburbs, further stoking tensions with Israel a day after similar explosions were launched via the group’s pagers.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said 20 people had been killed and 450 injured on a second day of blasts.

The death toll from the first explosions has risen to 12, including two children, with nearly 3000 injured, Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said. Among the wounded were many Hezbollah fighters and Iran’s ambassador to Beirut.

Israeli officials have not commented on the blasts, but security sources said Israel’s spy agency Mossad was responsible. One Hezbollah official said the episode was the biggest security breach in the group’s history.

The operations, which appeared to throw Hezbollah into disarray, played out alongside Israel’s 11-month-old war in Gaza and heightened fears of an escalation on its Lebanese border and the risk of a full-blown regional war.

“We are opening a new phase in the war. It requires courage, determination and perseverance from us,” Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said in remarks at an air force base.

He said the centre of gravity of the war was moving north, where Lebanon borders Israel, with more troops and resources being transferred to the area.

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi accused Israel of pushing the Middle East to the brink of a regional war by orchestrating a dangerous escalation on many fronts.

The US, which denied any involvement in the blasts, said it was pursuing intensive diplomacy to avert an escalation of the conflict. An American official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Israel told Washington on Tuesday it was going to do something in Lebanon. But Israel did not provide details and the operation itself was a surprise to Washington, the official said.

At least one of the latest blasts took place near a funeral organised by Hezbollah for those killed the day before when thousands of pagers used by the group exploded across the country.

Lebanon’s official news agency also reported that solar energy systems exploded in homes in several areas of Beirut and in southern Lebanon, wounding at least one girl.

In the southern suburbs of Beirut, Hezbollah members frantically took batteries out of any walkie-talkies that had not exploded, tossing the parts in metal barrels. Hezbollah turned to pagers and other low-tech communication devices in an attempt to evade Israeli surveillance of mobile phones.

Lebanon’s Red Cross said on X that it responded with 30 ambulance teams to multiple explosions in different areas, including the south of Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley.

Images of the exploded walkie-talkies showed labels with “ICOM” and “made in Japan”. The Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed radio communications and telephone company said it was investigating and would release updated information as soon as available.

Icom has said that production of model IC-V82, which appeared to be the model in the images, was phased out in 2014.

The hand-held radios were purchased by Hezbollah five months ago, around the same time as the pagers, a security source said.

This video grab shows a walkie-talkie that exploded inside a house, in Baalbek, east Lebanon.Credit: AP

Israel’s spy agency Mossad, which has a long history of sophisticated operations on foreign soil, planted explosives inside 5000 pagers imported by Hezbollah months before the detonations, a senior Lebanese security source and another source told Reuters.

The United Nations Security Council will meet on Friday about the blasts after a request by Arab states.

Tehran’s ambassador in Lebanon was superficially injured in Tuesday’s blasts, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported then. But The New York Times on Wednesday said he lost one eye and the other was severely injured when a pager he was carrying exploded, citing two members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

Iran’s envoy to the UN said in a letter that it “reserves its rights under international law to take required measures deemed necessary to respond” to the attack.

Hezbollah, which was thrown briefly into disarray by the pager attacks, said it had attacked Israeli artillery positions with rockets, the first strike at its arch-foe since the pager blasts.

The Israeli military said warning sirens sounded a number of times in northern Israel, but there were no reports of any damage or casualties.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk called for an independent investigation into the events surrounding the exploding pagers.

“Hezbollah wants to avoid an all-out war. It still wants to avoid one. But given the scale, the impact on families, on civilians, there will be pressure for a stronger response,” said Mohanad Hage Ali of the Carnegie Middle East Centre.

Hezbollah, Iran’s most powerful proxy in the Middle East, said in a statement it would continue to support Hamas in Gaza and Israel should await a response to the pager “massacre”. Its leader is due to make a speech on Thursday evening, Beirut time.

Footage from hospitals reviewed by Reuters showed men with various injuries, some to the face, some with missing fingers and gaping wounds at the hip where the pagers were most likely worn.

The plot appears to have been many months in the making, several sources told Reuters. It followed a series of assassinations of Hezbollah and Hamas commanders and leaders, blamed on Israel, since the start of the Gaza war.

Reuters, AP

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