Explosions apparently targeting walkie-talkies used by Hizbullah have killed at least three people and wounded at least 100 in cities across Lebanon, a day after more than 2,800 were injured and 12 killed by exploding pagers in an attack blamed on Israel.
A source in Hizbullah confirmed that walkie-talkies used by the group were targeted in the attack. A senior security source said that the individual explosions were “small in size”, similar to Tuesday’s attacks. There were initial reports of at least three dead, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.
Both Hizbullah and the Lebanese government have blamed Israel for Tuesday’s attack, with the former threatening a “fair punishment” for the explosion.
Pictures showed broken and singed communication devices amid scenes of destruction. The Guardian saw multiple pictures of an Icom IC-V82 two-way radio that had seemingly exploded.
In a video, a member of Hizbullah in the southern suburb of Beirut can be seen taking part in a funeral for fighters killed on Tuesday when a blast occurs somewhere on his body, knocking him to the ground and sending the crowd around him running.
Israel has not claimed responsibility for either of the two days’ attacks, but reports suggest it managed to place explosives in thousands of pagers bought by Hizbullah.
Earlier on Wednesday, Lebanese health minister Firass Abiad said 12 people were killed in Tuesday’s blasts, including two children.
Some 3,000 people, including civilians, are reported to have been injured by the wave of explosions that struck Lebanon on Tuesday.
Lebanon’s health ministry said 460 people required surgery for injuries after the pager detonations.
Lebanon’s information minister, Ziad Makary, said the country is preparing to put a complaint to the UN security council over the incident, which he called “a blatant attack on Lebanese sovereignty, that targeted civilians, not only Hizbullah members”.
Lebanon has received medical aid on Wednesday from Iran, Iraq and Jordan, and Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said his country rejects any attempts at escalation in the region, offering support to Lebanon.
Russia’s foreign ministry has said the attack was “deliberately” designed to “provoke a major war in the Middle East”.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said the US did not know about the pager explosions in Lebanon in advance, and that his country was still gathering the facts about the blasts.
Speaking in Cairo, Mr Blinken cautioned everyone in the region to avoid taking steps that could escalate the conflict.
The CEO of a Hungarian entity that a Taiwanese company said it had authorised to produce and sell pagers has denied making the devices, saying she was just an “intermediate”.
Gold Apollo, a Taiwan-based company, said in a statement today that it had a partnership with the Budapest-based BAC Consulting KFT, and had authorised BAC “to use our brand trademark for product sales in designated regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are solely the responsibility of BAC”.
However, when asked about the pagers and the explosions, BAC chief executive Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono said: “I don’t make the pagers. I am just the intermediate. I think you got it wrong.” – The Guardian/Reuters
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