1 day Ago By Noora Mykkanen
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a webbrowser that supports HTML5video Hundreds of pagers have exploded suddenly across Lebanon and Syria , killing and injuring people. At least nine people have reportedly been killed and thousands wounded yesterday after a simultaneous explosion. The explosions left chaos and confusion in their wake after the devices suddenly detonated.
It comes after escalating tensions in region between the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon and Israel . Up to 2,750 people were wounded, Al Jazeera reports citing the Lebanese security services and health minister. Members of Hezbollah and the Iranian ambassador are among the wounded.
Who is Hezbollah? Hezbollah – born out of the long Lebanese Civil War – is both a Shiite Muslim party and a militant group. It is anti-Israel and cozy with Iran, regularly receiving weapons from the country. It has backed Hamas since the start of October 7 tension between Israel and Palestine.
The group’s military power grew throughout the 2000s, and in 2021 its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said it had 100,000 fighters. Since the October 7 attacks, daily clashes have occurred between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, killing hundreds and displacing many more on both sides of the border. What happened in the Lebanon attack? Hundreds of personal pagers suddenly exploded yesterday across the southern suburbs of Beirut called Dahiyeh and the eastern Bekaa Valley – both known as Hezbollah strongholds.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a webbrowser that supports HTML5video Shocking footage shows explosions at till points and markets as the small devices went off in people’s pockets and bags. Many of the pagers were used by Hezbollah fighters to try to avoid Israeli tracking, Reuters reports. Hezbollah said two fighters and a young girl were among the dead.
An official for the militant group, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the incident was the ‘biggest security breach’ since tensions escalated last year, according to Reuters. How did the pagers explode? The exact cause of the explosion is not yet known. Hezbollah is said to have ordered the devices months before they exploded, according to Reuters citing a security source.
The senior source said some 5,000 beepers arrived in Lebanon in the spring. Now the source has claimed the pagers were modified by Israel’s Mossad spy agency ‘at the production level.’ They alleged that up to 3g of explosives were stuffed in the brand-new pagers which went undetected for months.
Analysis of the devices has revealed the stickers and format appear constant with the AR-924 model of pagers with Gold Apollo branding, a Taiwan based company. However, the firm’s founder Hsu Ching-Kuang said the pagers were manufactured under licence in Europe by a company called BAC using the Gold Apollo name, Sky News reports. Speculation focused the blame on the use of the radio network used by the beepers, suggesting it could have been hacked and then emitting a signal to the pagers, Al Jazeera reports.
Who is behind the attack? Israel has been accused of the deadly pager attack. Lebanese officials blamed it on ‘Israeli aggression’ as Hezbollah vowed to retaliate. A Hezbollah official told AP news agency anonymously that Israel had targeted the devices.
Speaking to the AP after his son, Mohammad Mahdi Ammar, was killed on Tuesday, prominent Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar said: ‘This is a new Israeli aggression against Lebanon.’ More Trending Eight killed and nearly 3,000 injured after pagers are detonated across Lebanon Man who 'let 72 men rape his wife' makes bombshell admission in court Woman, 30, killed in shark attack while 300 miles off coast on a catamaran Putin has been playing some very sneaky war games with his nuclear submarines ‘The resistance will retaliate in a suitable way at the suitable time The Israeli military has declined to comment. The UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy urged British nationals to leave Lebanon several weeks ago, saying they could become ‘trapped in a warzone’ if they didn’t.
Lufthansa has suspended all flights to Tel Aviv and Tehran in response to the explosions. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].
uk . For more stories like this, check our news page . MORE : Eight killed and nearly 3,000 injured after pagers are detonated across Lebanon MORE : One year on, this is what British Jews think of Israel’s war on Palestine MORE : Man ‘screams in pain’ after setting himself on fire outside Israeli consulate Sign Up for News Updates Get your need-to-knowlatest news, feel-good stories, analysis and more Privacy Policy.
