https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/dozens-hezbollah-members-wounded-leban...




By Laila Bassam
September 18, 20245:04 AM GMT+10Updated 35 min ago

   
    Hezbollah calls it biggest security breach in war with Israel
    Hezbollah fighters are among those killed, the group says
    Pagers are used to try to avoid Israeli detection
    No comment from Israeli military or government
    Iranian ambassador to Lebanon reportedly injured

BEIRUT, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Militant group Hezbollah promised to retaliate against Israel after accusing it of detonating pagers across Lebanon on Tuesday, killing at least eight people and wounding nearly 3,000 others who included fighters and Iran's envoy to Beirut.
Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary condemned the late afternoon detonation of the pagers - handheld devices that Hezbollah and others in Lebanon use to send messages - as an "Israeli aggression". Hezbollah said Israel would receive "its fair punishment" for the blasts.
The Israeli military, which has been engaged in cross-border fighting with Iran-backed Hezbollah since the start of the Gaza war in October, declined to respond to questions about the detonations.
Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said on Tuesday that eight people were killed and 2,750 wounded in the pager explosions, 200 of them critically.
Hezbollah in an earlier statement confirmed the deaths included at least two of its fighters and a little girl.
The pagers exploded in southern Lebanon, the southern suburbs of Beirut known as Dahiyeh and the eastern Bekaa Valley - all Hezbollah strongholds.

https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/lebanon-pagers-attack-hezbollah/index.ht...


1 hr 39 min ago



Kim Ghattas, a Lebanese journalist and contributing writer to The Atlantic magazine, told CNN that Hezbollah had recently “gone low tech” in an attempt to prevent more of its operatives from being assassinated.

“It was clearly a targeted attack by Israel against Hezbollah operatives who had gone low tech, because they have been the target of assassinations over the past 10 months. They’ve been instructed to dump their iPhones, get off the internet and disconnect their CCTVs,” Ghattas told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.

Israel has not yet commented on the explosions. Hezbollah and the Lebanese government have blamed Israel for the attack.

Asked why Israel might have launched such an attack, Ghattas said there are two main explanations.

“It’s either a way to try to demonstrate to Hezbollah that Israel knows everything about them… To try, in essence, to cow Hezbollah into submission, and make clear that an increase of their attacks against Israel will be met with even further violence,” she said.
“Or, it could be a prelude to an Israeli large-scale campaign against [Lebanon], at a time when Hezbollah is facing the chaos of this latest very science-fiction-like attack against its operatives.”

Bobby. wrote on Sep 18^th, 2024 at 6:15am:


hi bobby,


Yes.

This attack seems to be somewhat of a provocation, by whoever did it.

What could they be hoping, that the 'response' to such a mass attack may be ???

Bobby. wrote on Sep 18^th, 2024 at 6:29am:


Yes.

It could very well be.

Surely the Israelis would have considered that such a response [as you suggest], could be the consequence ?



What is their 'end game', what is Israels true objective [....in such an attack] ?

???

Yadda wrote on Sep 18^th, 2024 at 6:38am:



It's bad.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-september-17-2024/


By Reuters and ToI Staff

The UN special coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert says in a statement that she deplores the attack across Lebanon, warning that it marks “an extremely concerning escalation.”

Pagers used by the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah detonated today throughout Lebanon and in Syria, killing at least 11 and leaving thousands wounded.

A lot of Muslim terrorists now having to eat and wipe their arses with the same hand!

Setanta wrote on Sep 18^th, 2024 at 6:51am:


"An advisor to Lebanon’s health minister Firass Abiad said that 200 people had sustained critical injuries, with an eight-year-old girl among the dead."