18-9-2024 (BEIRUT) In a shocking turn of events, Lebanon was rocked by a series of mysterious pager explosions on Tuesday, 17 September, resulting in nine fatalities and nearly 3,000 injuries. The militant group Hezbollah has accused Israel of orchestrating the attacks and promised swift retaliation, marking a potential escalation in the ongoing tensions between the two nations.
The explosions, which targeted handheld communication devices widely used by Hezbollah and other Lebanese groups, occurred across several Hezbollah strongholds, including southern Lebanon, the southern suburbs of Beirut known as Dahiyeh, and the eastern Bekaa Valley. The incident has been described by Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary as an act of “Israeli aggression”.
THIS IS CRAZY! ????????????
Israeli Intelligence (Mossad) is responsible for KILLING at least 8 people in Lebanon, including children, as well as INJURING OVER 2750 other Hezbollah fighters by way of hacking their pagers & mobile devices causing them to EXPLODE in a MASSIVE targeted… pic.twitter.com/pToLuoVX1o
— The Patriot Voice (@TPV_John) September 17, 2024
Hezbollah, in a strongly-worded statement, vowed that Israel would receive “its fair punishment” for the blasts. The group confirmed that at least two of its fighters and a young girl were among the casualties. The Israeli military, which has been engaged in cross-border skirmishes with the Iran-backed Hezbollah since the outbreak of the Gaza war last October, has declined to comment on the allegations.
The severity of the incident was underscored by closed-circuit surveillance footage, broadcast by regional media outlets, showing a small handheld device exploding next to a cashier in a grocery store. A Hezbollah official, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the event as the “biggest security breach” for the group in nearly a year of conflict with Israel.
The international community has responded with concern. Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the UN special coordinator for Lebanon, deplored the attack, stating that it “marked an extremely concerning escalation” in the conflict. The United States, while denying any involvement, has called for a diplomatic solution to the tensions between Israel and Lebanon.
Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, reportedly suffered a “superficial injury” in the blasts and is under observation in hospital, according to Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency. The casualties also included sons of top Hezbollah officials, with one of the deceased being the son of Hezbollah member of parliament, Ali Ammar.
The pager explosions come at a time of heightened tension in the region. Earlier on Tuesday, Israel’s domestic security agency claimed to have foiled a Hezbollah plot to assassinate a former senior defence official. This series of events has raised fears of potential escalation into a full-scale conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, a scenario the United States has been actively working to prevent.
Experts, however, remain cautiously sceptical about the immediate outbreak of all-out war. Matthew Levitt, former deputy director of the US Treasury’s intelligence office, suggested that the pager explosions could significantly disrupt Hezbollah’s operations in the short term. Jonathan Panikoff, formerly of US national intelligence, described the incident as Hezbollah’s “biggest counterintelligence failure in decades” but warned that continued diplomatic failures could eventually lead to full-scale war.
