Iran envoy among 500 blinded as they read messages ‘from Hezbollah HQ’ on pagers

The militant group’s pagers were intercepted before delivery and explosives were inserted for a mass attack that blew up 3000 of the devices simultaneously, injuring thousands and killing nine.

Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon is reportedly among 500 people blinded in a dramatic attack on the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah across Lebanon, which also killed at least nine people including an eight-year-old girl and injured 3000, 200 critically.

Unbeknown to members of the Iran-backed group, who were told by their leadership to stop using mobiles and smart phones because of the surveillance and hacking ability of the Israeli intelligence service, the latest consignment of their low tech replacements, a modern version of the 1980s pager, were ticking time bombs.

لحظة انفجار جهاز "Pager" مع أحد الأشخاص داخل محال "السجاد" على الجاموس في الضاحية الجنوبيّة لبيروت.#بيروت#الضاحية_الجنوبية#حزب_الله#لبنان#ليبانوسpic.twitter.com/zhuNB4U6qk

— Lebanos (@lebanosnews) September 17, 2024

On Tuesday afternoon at 3.30pm local time, around 3000 pagers started ringing across the country simultaneously and then suddenly exploded, causing pandemonium throughout Lebanon as well as parts of Damascus in Syria, where pagers also blew up.

Hezbollah immediately blamed Israel for the hour-long mass coordinated attack which, as well as the nine dead in Lebanon, killed a reported seven in Syria, and injured more than 2800 people. Around 500 Hezbollah fighters were blinded in the attack according to Arab media, while Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, lost one eye and was seriously injured in his other eye, members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard reported.

فيديو متداول – لحظة انفجار جهاز "Pager" مع أحد الأشخاص داخل محال "يحيى" – #طريق_المطار.#لبنان#الضاحية_الجنوبية#حزب_الله#ليبانوسpic.twitter.com/nu4DPcfCF3

— Lebanos (@lebanosnews) September 17, 2024

“Israel will get its fair punishment,” Hezbollah said in a statement as Firas al-Abyad, Lebanon’s Minister of Health warned the death toll would likely rise.

Social media footage shared immediately after the attack showed many males with bloody injuries to hands, faces or legs, the focus of the blast depending on whether they had handled the pager or not, crammed into Lebanese hospitals and being treated on the floor in corridors.

One video showed a man’s pager, on his hip, blowing up as he shopped in a vegetable market, throwing him to the floor and sending other shoppers fleeing.

A motorcyclist was shown unconscious and slumped against a car with injuries to his upper leg, the pager having been inside in his jeans pocket. Another had his hand blown off as he also suffered gaping abdominal wounds.

Hezbollah said Fatima Jaafar Abdullah the ten-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah official, died in the attack as well as a handful of Hezbollah “brothers” including an adult son of a Hezbollah MP.

Most of the blasts occurred in Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut’s southern suburbs, in southern Lebanon and in the eastern Bekaa Valley. Hezbollah operatives in Syria were also subjected to the pager explosions, Damascus media reported.

A Lebanese Red Cross ambulance rushes wounded people to a hospital in Beirut. Picture: AFP

According to reports in Israeli and US media, the pagers, manufactured in Taiwan by Gold Apollo, were intercepted before they were delivered to Lebanon. Explosives were placed inside, along with a switch to set them off remotely.

According to the New York Times, the blasts were triggered at 3.30pm by a message sent to 3,000 pagers that appeared to be from Hezbollah leaders. The pagers sounded for several seconds before they were detonated.

The blasts came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel was expanding its war goals to include the return of Israelis who had been evacuated from northern communities after months of rocket strikes from Lebanon.

The Israeli government is under increasing pressure to return the tens of thousands of evacuees; on Monday local time, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said dimming prospects for diplomacy were leaving military action as the only alternative.

UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert denounced in a statement “an extremely concerning escalation”, urging all sides to refrain from any action “which could trigger a wider conflagration that nobody can afford”.

The United States was “not involved” and “not aware of this incident in advance”, said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.

A few months ago the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah - who was uninjured in the pager blasts - told militants to abandon their phones because Israeli forces could intercept their calls, and urged them to use the supplied pagers for vital communications.

The man in the baseball cap is a Hezbollah member whose pager is about to explode as he shops.

The shopper is thrown to the floor as his pager explodes.

Within minutes of the blasts, the security ministry in Lebanon issued an urgent alert for people to distance themselves from the pagers, to clear the roads for ambulances and to donate blood.

The targeted explosions are believed to be have been triggered remotely by a small amount of explosive, about 50 grams, implanted inside the most recent batch of pagers delivered to the militant group. The delivery could have been organised via Iran, indicating a major intelligence breach.

Overheated batteries have been discounted by technology experts because of the force and nature of the explosions, although some security experts have suggested an intentional overloading of the pager system could have partly initiated the attack.

Hezbollah claims Israel had hacked their communications system. They threatened that “this treacherous and criminal enemy will certainly receive just punishment for this sinful aggression, whether he expects it or not and God is witness to what we say’’.

The group had earlier affirmed that they were at the highest readiness “to defend Lebanon and its steadfast people against the Zionist enemy”.

Paramedics bring the wounded to a hospital in Beirut. Picture: AFP.

Israel has not commented on the latest developments. The country’s security forces have used booby trapped phones as far back as 1996 to target jihadi terrorists.

But the latest attack has ratcheted an already tense atmosphere in the region.

The attacks came as Israeli security agency Shin Bet announced it had foiled an attempt by Hezbollah to assassinate a former senior Israeli security official using a remotely detonated explosive device.

The attack was intended to have been carried out in the coming days, The Times of Israel reports. Shin Bet said it uncovered a Claymore-style anti-personnel mine, known to be in possession of Hezbollah, which had a remote detonation system, including a camera and a cellular connection, which would have allowed Hezbollah to activate it from Lebanon, Shin Bet said.

The Iranian proxy group began its attacks on Israel communities on the northern border in solidarity with Hamas almost immediately after Hamas committed its atrocities against Israel on October 7.

In the wake of the pager attack, British Airways, Air France, Swissair and other European airlines have suspended flights to and from Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv. The Mayor of Tel Aviv has also authorised the opening of local bomb shelters in preparation for any retaliation, not just by Hezbollah but possibly from Hamas and other Iranian proxies such as the Houthis.

Meanwhile the Israel Defence Force home front command has warned local authorities of a possible escalation following the pager explosions, Israel media reports.