▲ A man donates blood in a southern Beirut suburb for victims of a series of explosions yesterday in several Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon, amid clashes between the organization and Israeli forces. Hundreds of radio beacons used by Hezbollah members exploded on Thursday, killing at least 11 people.Afp Photo
Tom Watling, Bel Trew and Alexander Butler
The Independent
The newspaper La Jornada
Wednesday, September 18, 2024, p. 24
Tel Aviv. Hezbollah has vowed to respond after nine people were killed and some 2,800 wounded in Lebanon when hundreds of electronic beepers used by militants to communicate exploded simultaneously.
The group claimed that the attack, which took place at 3:30 p.m., was carried out by Israel, an accusation that Tel Aviv refused to respond to, in line with its policy on attacks committed outside its territory.
Lebanese Health Minister Firas al-Abyad said 11 people were killed, including an eight-year-old girl, after the devices exploded in several locations in Lebanon and in the Syrian capital Damascus, where Hezbollah has located some of its members. He added that another 4,000 people were injured, 400 of them in critical condition.
The beepers that exploded were apparently acquired by Hezbollah after the group’s leader ordered his militants to stop using cellphones in February, warning they could be tracked by Israeli intelligence.
After examining the facts, current data and available information regarding the cruel attack committed this afternoon, we hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression, which also targeted civilians.Hezbollah said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon.
This traitorous and criminal enemy will undoubtedly receive just retribution for this wicked aggression, where he expects it and where he does not expect it, and we call God as our witness.
A Hezbollah representative, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the detonation of the beepers was the biggest security breach that the group has suffered in almost a year of war with Israel.
While most of the explosions were concentrated in the southern suburbs of Beirut, the Iranian site Saberin News, The news site, affiliated with the military, said seven people had died in Syria, where many Hezbollah members are based. The news site said the people died in the Damascus neighbourhood of Seyedah Zeinab, a few kilometres from the Iranian embassy.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported that several injured people arrived at hospitals around Damascus. It said 14 people were wounded. The Independent could not verify those claims.
Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was wounded in one of the blasts, Iran’s Mehr news agency reported.
Another Hezbollah spokesman said the son of one of its senior lawmakers, Ali Ammar Mahdi, was killed when the device he was carrying exploded.
Lebanese Health Minister Al-Abyad, speaking at an urgent news conference in Beirut, said that around 100 hospitals had received wounded from Tuesday’s attack. Most of the injured suffered wounds to the face or arms, and some to the abdomen, he added.
The beepers that detonated were of the latest model acquired by Hezbollah in recent months, security sources said.
Hezbollah representatives speculated that the devices could have been contaminated with malware which caused them to overheat and explode. Another theory suggests that explosive charges were placed on the planes and detonated remotely. This would indicate that whoever carried out the attack had access to the shipment of the planes before they were delivered to Hezbollah.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has been exchanging fire with Hezbollah since last October while waging a war against Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. In a statement after the The Independent, The Israeli army said that He refrained from commenting.
The blasts came after Tel Aviv claimed to have killed top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in an airstrike in Beirut last July. Other high-ranking officials were killed in attacks on the Iranian embassy in Damascus.
Hezbollah, which controls southern Lebanon, is part of the so-called axis of resistance of Iran, which opposes Western and Israeli influence in the region.
The group opened a second front against Israel a day after the start of the war in Gaza, triggered by a Hamas attack on Israeli territory on October 7.
Hamas, which is backed by Tehran, has killed some 1,200 people and taken 251 others hostage. In response, Israel has bombarded Gaza from the air and ground.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Tuesday that the safe return of its citizens to their homes near the border with Lebanon has been added to his government’s formal war goals.
The security cabinet has updated the war’s objectives to include the following: to safely return residents of the north to their homes. Israel will continue to work towards this goal.said a statement.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced from towns and cities on both sides of the border by the almost daily exchanges of fire between the Israeli military and Hezbollah.
Tel Aviv has said it would prefer a diplomatic solution, which would include moving Hezbollah away from the border.
However, Hezbollah, which also claims to want to avoid an all-out conflict, warns that only an end to the war in Gaza would stop the fighting.
Efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza have stalled after months of halting negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States.
© The Independent
Translation: Jorge Anaya