JERUSALEM: Lebanon’s health ministry said Wednesday that at least 20 people were killed and 450 others wounded by exploding electronic devices in multiple regions of the country.
The explosions came a day after an apparent Israeli attack targeting pagers used by Hezbollah killed at least 12 and wounded nearly 3,000.
Associated Press journalists reported multiple explosions at the site of a Beirut funeral for three Hezbollah members and a child killed by exploding pagers the day before.
Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV reported explosions in multiple areas of Lebanon, and a Hezbollah official told the AP that walkie-talkies used by the group exploded in Beirut. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Hezbollah began striking Israel almost immediately after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that sparked the Israel-Hamas war. Since then, Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged fire daily, coming close to a full-blown war on several occasions and forcing tens of thousands on both sides of the border to evacuate their homes.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. The ministry does not differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count but says a little over half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
US military officials reexamining how forces are positioned in Mideast
WASHINGTON: Lt. Gen. Derek France, the head of U.S. air power in the Middle East, had been scheduled to talk to reporters at a conference in Maryland on Wednesday but canceled to more closely monitor the situation after the pager attack, a military official said on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing situation.
The official said the attack has prompted the Air Force to reexamine how U.S. forces are positioned in the region in case of retaliation.
It comes after the Navy pulled one of its aircraft carriers out of the region last week following the Pentagon’s decision to keep two carriers in the Middle East for a short time recently.
The Biden administration beefed up the U.S. military presence there to help defend Israel from possible attacks by Iran and its proxies and to safeguard U.S. troops. The U.S. has tens of thousands of service members, additional ships and aircraft squadrons based throughout the Middle East to try to keep the conflict from spreading into a wider regional war.
Hezbollah says it is in ‘new confrontation'
BEIRUT: Hashem Safieddine, head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council said Wednesday that the militant group will respond to Tuesday's pager explosion attack with “special punishment."
The group is in a “new confrontation with the enemy," Safieddine said.
Hundreds of handheld pagers exploded almost simultaneously Tuesday across Lebanon and in parts of Syria, killing at least 12 people, government and Hezbollah officials said. Officials pointed the finger at Israel in what appeared to be a sophisticated remote attack. The Israeli military declined to comment.
UN rights chief calls for investigation into pager attack
GENEVA: The U.N. human rights chief is calling for an independent investigation into mass explosions from detonating pagers in Lebanon and Syria.
Volker Türk said in a statement Wednesday that “the fear and terror unleashed is profound” and urged world leaders to step up “in defense of the rights of all people to live in peace and security.”
Türk said the targeting of thousands of people — whether civilians or members of armed groups — without knowledge of who held the devices or where they were, violates international law.
The statement made no reference to who might be responsible for Tuesday’s explosions.
“The protection of civilians must be the paramount priority,” he said, alluding to the deadly violence in the Middle East in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel. “De-escalation is today more crucial than ever.”
Israel says it foiled Hezbollah attack targeting an official
TEL AVIV: Israeli police said an explosion in a park in Tel Aviv last September was intended to target former military chief of staff and defense minister Moshe Yaalon. No one was injured in the September 15, 2023 attack, which authorities have attributed to Hezbollah, based on the type of explosive used, without providing additional information.
Police said investigations of the people involved in placing the explosive revealed that Yaalon was the intended target. The explosive was equipped with cameras allowing the attackers to trigger it remotely when they saw their target approaching.
The announcement comes after police said they and Israel’s Shin Bet security agency had thwarted a similar attack using the same type of explosive on Tuesday. The Shin Bet said in a statement that it had found an explosive device fitted with a camera and a mechanism that would allow it to be activated by Hezbollah from Lebanon. It said the attack was to be carried out in the coming days.
The Shin Bet did not provide evidence linking the device to Hezbollah, which has been trading fire with Israel along the Lebanese border since the outbreak of the war in Gaza. Authorities did not say where the device was found or identify the target of the foiled attack, but said the official had been notified.
Iran accuses the U.S. and the West of supporting pager attack
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian has accused the U.S. and its allies of backing the exploding pagers attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria.
“Using devices, made for welfare of human beings, as a tool for assassination and annihilation” of those who don’t hold the same views of the U.S., Israel and the West is “an indication of the collapse of humanity as well domination of savagery and barbarism,” the website of the president quoted him as saying Wednesday.
“The incident once again showed that western nations and Americans fully support crime, killings and blind assassinations by the Zionist regime, in practice,” Pezeshkian added.
Iran is the chief supporter of Hezbollah, the militant Lebanese group that Israel sees it as its most direct threat. Many of the group’s fighters were killed and injured in Tuesday’s explosions.
Iran has already sent a group of Iranian medics to Lebanon to help victims of the explosions.
