Israel bombed Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon on Thursday, piling pressure on the militant
group after two waves of explosions targeted its communications systems,
killing 37 people.
Israel has not commented on the attacks in which Hezbollah operatives’ pagers
and walkie-talkies exploded in supermarkets, on streets and at funerals.
The Iran-backed group has accused Israel of staging the unprecedented
attacks, and its leader Hassan Nasrallah is scheduled to deliver a speech
later Thursday that will be closely monitored for any indication of how the
group plans to respond.
The device explosions, involving pagers and walkie-talkies, killed 37 people
across two days, including two children, and wounded more than 2,900 others,
according to Lebanon’s health minister.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said on Wednesday, in reference to
his country’s border with Lebanon: “The centre of gravity is moving
northward.”
“We are at the start of a new phase in the war,” he warned.
Hezbollah is an ally of Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has been
fighting a war in Gaza since its October 7 attack on Israel.
For nearly a year, the focus of Israel’s firepower has been on Gaza, which is
ruled by Hamas.
But its troops have also been engaged in near-daily clashes with Hezbollah
militants along its northern border, killing hundreds in Lebanon, most of
them fighters, and dozens in Israel.
The exchanges of fire have forced tens of thousands of people on both sides
of the border to flee their homes.
On Thursday, the Israeli military said it struck six Hezbollah
“infrastructure sites” and a weapons storage facility overnight in southern
Lebanon, a stronghold of the militant group.
Lebanon’s National News Agency also reported Israeli strikes and shelling on
several towns in the south.
Rattled by the attacks that targeted its communication system, Hezbollah said
Israel was “fully responsible for this criminal aggression” and vowed
revenge.
On Thursday it said 25 of its members had been killed in the explosions, with
a source close to the group saying at least 20 had died when their walkie-
talkies detonated.
– ‘Wider war’ –
Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said the “blatant assault on
Lebanon’s sovereignty and security” was a dangerous development that could
“signal a wider war”.
Its prime minister, Najib Mikati, urged the United Nations to oppose Israel’s
“technological war” on the country, ahead of a UN Security Council meeting on
the exploding devices attack.
Iran’s envoy to the UN said his country “reserves the right to take
retaliatory measures” after its ambassador in Beirut was wounded in the
blasts.
The White House, which is pressing to salvage efforts for an elusive
ceasefire deal to end the Gaza war, warned all sides against “an escalation
of any kind”.
“We don’t believe that the way to solve where we’re at in this crisis is by
additional military operations at all,” said US National Security Council
spokesman John Kirby.
The October 7 attacks that sparked the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of
1,205 people, mostly civilians, on the Israeli side, according to an AFP
tally based on official Israeli figures that include hostages killed in
captivity.
Out of 251 hostages seized by militants, 97 are still held in Gaza, including
33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,272 people in
Gaza, most of them civilians, according to data provided by the Hamas-run
territory’s health ministry. The UN has acknowledged these figures as
reliable.
In Gaza on Wednesday, the civil defence agency said an Israeli strike on a
school-turned-shelter killed five people. The Israeli military said it
targeted Hamas militants.
In Lebanon, the influx of so many casualties following the blasts overwhelmed
medics.
At a Beirut hospital, doctor Joelle Khadra said “the injuries were mainly to
the eyes and hands, with finger amputations, shrapnel in the eyes — some
people lost their sight.”
A doctor at another hospital in the Lebanese capital said he had worked
through the night and that the injuries were “out of this world — never seen
anything like it”.
– ‘Sabotaged at source’ –
Analysts said operatives had likely planted explosives on the pagers before
they were delivered to Hezbollah.
The preliminary findings of a Lebanese investigation found the pagers had
been booby-trapped, a security official said.
“Data indicates the devices were pre-programmed to detonate and contained
explosive materials planted next to the battery,” the official said,
requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
A source close to Hezbollah, asking not to be identified, said the pagers
were recently imported and appeared to have been “sabotaged at source”.
After The New York Times reported that the pagers that exploded on Wednesday
had been ordered from Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo, the company said
they had been produced by its Hungarian partner BAC Consulting KFT.
A government spokesman in Budapest said the company was “a trading
intermediary, with no manufacturing or operational site in Hungary”.
Japanese firm Icom said it had stopped producing the model of radios
reportedly used in Wednesday’s blasts in Lebanon around 10 years ago.
In another sign of Israel and Iran’s rivalry, Israeli police and the Shin Bet
security service said they had arrested an Israeli citizen accused of
plotting to assassinate top officials including Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu. (BSS/AFP)
