Beirut:
Over a thousand people have been injured in Lebanon in a synchronised detonation of pagers targeting US-designated terror group Hezbollah. Iran’s state media reported that its ambassador to Lebanon has also been wounded in the incident.
Hezbollah, which is banned both by the United States and the European Union is the political and military establishment in Lebanon and is backed by Iran. Hezbollah backs Hamas, which has been at war with Israel in Gaza since October 2023.
Hezbollah has blamed Israel for the attack and has claimed that this is the “biggest security breach” it has faced yet.
All the pagers exploded nearly the same time, the Hezbollah has claimed, saying that this is an “Israeli breach” of its communications network.
The incident was the first of its kind since Hezbollah began trading near-daily fire with Israel in support of ally Hamas after the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war.
“Dozens of Hezbollah members have been wounded in the south and in Beirut’s southern suburbs after their pagers exploded,” a source close to Hezbollah told news agency AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency called it “an unprecedented enemy security incident” with “handheld pagers detonating” at nearly the same time across Lebanon.
According to AFP, Hezbollah communicates through its own telecommunications system and has asked its members to avoid using mobile phones since the Gaza war began almost a year ago. The diktat was issued to avoid Israeli breaches of the technology.
