A second wave of explosions from electronic devices rocked Lebanon on Wednesday afternoon (18), killing nine people and injuring another 300, government officials said. The apparently coordinated attack comes as the country recovers from a similar operation the day before (Sep. 17) that exploded thousands of pagers belonging to members of the militant group Hezbollah.
The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest attack. Lebanese, American, and other officials familiar with the matter say that Israel was responsible for the deadly pager explosions on Tuesday (17), which detonated the handheld devices that were in the hands and pockets of their owners.
Lebanese security officials and a Hezbollah officer said that the devices that exploded on Wednesday were portable radios belonging to Hezbollah members.
The pager explosions on Tuesday killed at least 12 people and injured more than 2,700 others. Hezbollah said that eight of the dead were members, but two others were children, including a 9-year-old girl.
Escalation of War in the Middle East
The attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday heighten fears of a broader war between the group and Israel. Israeli officials have increasingly suggested that they support escalating military operations in Lebanon to push back Hezbollah, which has already fired thousands of missiles and drones at Israel since October in solidarity with Hamas.
On the other hand, despite the tactical strength of the recent attacks, Hezbollah has stated that it will not cease the assaults it has been launching against Israel. The conflict has caused more than 150,000 people to flee their homes in the border region between Israel and Lebanon, and Israeli officials have faced growing frustration from the tens of thousands of displaced Israelis who are unable to return home.
How was this type of attack possible
It is believed that Israel hid small explosives inside a new batch of pagers made in Taiwan and imported to Lebanon, according to American officials and others informed about the operation. The Taiwanese company that some officials named as the supplier, Gold Apollo, attempted to distance itself from the devices on Wednesday, stating that another manufacturer with an address in Hungary had made the pager model targeted in the attack.
Why pagers?
The attack targeted hundreds of pagers belonging to Hezbollah agents who have used such devices for years to make it difficult to intercept their messages. The use of pagers became even more common after the attacks on October 7, when the head of Hezbollah warned that Israeli intelligence had penetrated mobile phone networks.
Source: The New York Times