An eyewitness recounts that a crowded market was filled with the sound of exploding pagers used by Hezbollah operatives for communication purposes. Regional Lebanese media reports confirm over 1,200 Hezbollah members were injured as a result of this incident. Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani is reported to be among the wounded in the series of pager explosions, according to Iran’s Mehr news outlet. It has been confirmed by Reuters that some of the explosions occurred in Syria as well.
A correspondent from Al Jazeera describes the severity of the situation: “We are talking about hundreds of members of the group in hospitals. We are seeing videos online of injuries to their arms, to their legs, even to their faces.” The Lebanese Health Ministry is urging for doctors and nurses to rush to south Beirut hospitals amid a shortage. Reuters is reporting that among the confirmed killed is a Hezbollah Member of Parliament’s son, who was part of the armed wing.
A source from Hezbollah claims the explosions were “a security operation that targeted the devices.” The official says Israel is behind this security incident without elaborating further. This could signal the start of a larger anti-Hezbollah campaign. It seems likely that Hezbollah will escalate tensions as well, potentially leading to the beginning of a new Lebanon war on an even bigger scale than the 2006 war.
Military analyst Elijah Magnier explains in Al Jazeera that Hezbollah relies heavily on pagers to avoid Israel intercepting its members’ communications. He also suggests that these devices might have been pre-tampered before they were dispersed among Hezbollah members.
In southern Beirut, a neighborhood has experienced chaos due to the large-scale casualties among Hezbollah operatives and Lebanese civilians resulting from exploding telecommunications devices used by Hezbollah members. Hundreds of Hezbollah members were wounded, with some fatalities reported as well. It is still unclear how Israeli intelligence was able to infiltrate Hezbollah’s telecoms – whether small bombs were placed in the pagers or if there was a large-scale cyber hack involved. What is becoming clearer is that they were remotely detonated.
The situation remains undeveloped, with local hospitals reportedly being inundated with victims and family members rushing to entrances trying to find out what’s going on. The explosion of pagers used by Hezbollah operatives has resulted in a massive security breach for the group since the start of its nearly year-long conflict with Israel.