Paging all terrorists!
Thousands of Hezbollah terrorists were injured in southern Lebanon on Tuesday when their new pagers all simultaneously exploded — causing horrifying burns to their groins and hands as the devices detonated on their belts and in their pockets.
Lebanese officials said 2,800 people were injured and eight killed in what Hezbollah officials claimed was a hacking attack by Israel.
Hezbollah — a Lebanese militant group that the US has designated as a terrorist organization — confirmed the wide-range attack on its operatives, including fighters and medics, with one official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, calling it the “biggest security breach” since it began its near-daily attacks on Israel on Oct. 8.
Videos uploaded to social media show several incidents where seemingly unaware men had devices in their pockets blow up, with the victims crying in pain as bystanders ran away.
One such video shows a man shopping at a local grocery store when an explosion triggers in his pocket, sending debris flying out of his pants as he falls to the ground.
Other videos circulating social media show dozens of men in hospitals covered in burn wounds, with one man seen with his fingers blown off and another covering his bloody face.
Several of the men caught by the blasts could be seen covering their groins and thighs, which were likely wounded when the pagers went off in their pants.
Doctors could also be seen treating the injured men lying on cardboard mats in the hallway as the hospitals were quickly inundated Tuesday morning.
Along with Hezbollah operatives, Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was also injured in the blasts, according to Tehran’s Mehr news agency. --->READ MORE HERE
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| Photograph: Wael Hamzeh/EPA |
Almost 3,000 people have been wounded and at least nine killed after pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon simultaneously, according to the country’s health minister.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the blasts, which came just hours after Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the war sparked by the Hamas attacks on 7 October to include its fight against Hezbollah along the border with Lebanon.
Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, said the blasts on Tuesday killed a 10-year-old girl, among others. “About 2,750 people were injured ... more than 200 of them critically,” with injuries mostly reported to the face, hands and stomach, Abiad told a press conference.
Hezbollah said in a statement that two of its fighters l were among the dead. Later media reports said the son of the Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar also died in the explosions.
Lebanon’s information minister called the explosions an act of “Israeli aggression”.
Hezbollah said it held Israel “fully responsible” for Tuesday’s attack and that a “just punishment” was coming.
Hezbollah fighters in Syria were also injured in the attack, with several being treated in hospitals in Damascus, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards-affiliated Saberin News reported that some guards had also been killed.
The incident further ratcheted up tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, interrupting an uneasy calm which had prevailed over the last three weeks. Both parties seemed to have stepped back from the brink of a regional war on 25 August, after a limited Hezbollah response to Israel’s assassination of its top military commander, Fouad Shukur, in Beirut.
Hebrew media reports said Benjamin Netanyahu, Yoav Gallant and other security chiefs had been huddling at the defence ministry headquarters at the Kirya base in Tel Aviv since the blasts. The Israel Defense Force’s home front command told local authorities there was a possibility of an escalation after the incident.
A Hezbollah source told the Guardian they believed the attack was in response to the alleged assassination attempt by the Shia militia on a former top Israeli defence official, revealed on Tuesday by the Israeli Shin Bet security agency.
The Shin Bet accused Hezbollah of attempting to kill a former security official using a claymore anti-personnel mine that could be detonated remotely. The agency published photos of a dismantled bomb and wiring wrapped in tape, claiming the attack was prevented in its “final stages”. Hezbollah has not commented on the alleged assassination attempt.
Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was one of those injured in the explosions, according to Iran’s Mehr news agency.
Some of the top Hezbollah leaders and their advisers were also injured, the Saudi-owned Al-Hadath news channel reported, quoting unnamed sources.
Abiad, said that while it was too early for an accurate tally, the number of wounded was in the “hundreds” and there were some fatalities from the explosions. --->READ MORE HERE
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