North News
New Delhi, September 19
At least 20 people have been killed and over 450 injured in a series of explosions targeting Hezbollah communications devices. The explosions, which occurred across multiple cities in Lebanon, detonated thousands of booby-trapped walkie-talkies, raising concerns among international observers that the attack could be classified as a war crime, the UK-based news outlet The Guardian reported.
The blasts followed another wave of violence the previous day, when more than 2,800 people were injured and 12 killed in explosions involving pagers. The attacks have been blamed on Israel, heightening fears of a potential escalation into full-scale conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, despite ongoing efforts by the U.S. and U.N. to mediate, the UK based news outlet said.
A Hezbollah source confirmed The Guardian that the group’s walkie-talkies were targeted in Wednesday’s attack. A senior security official noted that the explosions were “small in size,” similar to those seen on Tuesday.
Israeli intelligence agencies have a long history of using telecommunication devices to track, surveil, and even eliminate their adversaries. This dates back to 1972 when Mossad operatives rigged the phone of Mahmoud Hamshari, the Palestine Liberation Organization’s representative in Paris, with explosives. When Hamshari answered the phone, the bomb was remotely detonated by an Israeli team, leading to his death, the UK-based Financial Times reported.
Now, in a similarly dramatic escalation, hundreds of pagers exploded across Lebanon on Tuesday afternoon, and suspicions have turned toward Israel. Hizbollah, a militant group heavily affected by the attack, immediately held Israel responsible, the UK-based news outlet said. The explosions killed at least 11 people, including a child, and injured more than 2,700 others.
Israeli intelligence reportedly planted explosives inside thousands of pagers imported by Hezbollah months before Tuesday’s devastating attack in Lebanon, according to sources cited by various U.S. media outlets. These explosive devices were secretly embedded into the pagers, leading to a coordinated detonation that killed at least 11 people and injured over 2,700, UK-based news outlet The Guardian reported.
The attack, which targeted Hezbollah operatives, highlights the sophisticated methods employed by Israeli intelligence in its ongoing conflict with the militant group. Hezbollah had shifted to using pagers in recent months, believing them to be a more secure form of communication after their leader, Hassan Nasrallah, urged operatives to ditch smartphones to avoid Israeli surveillance, the news outlet said.
