After pager attack, walkie-Talkie blasts across Lebanon, Hezbollah vows retaliation

Sep 19, 2024

Hand-held radios used by Lebanese armed group Hezbollah detonated on September 18 across Lebanon's south, in Beirut suburbs and, further stoking tensions with Israel. Lebanon's health ministry said 14 people had been killed and 450 injured, while the death toll from September 17 explosions rose to 12, including two children. Hezbollah, which was thrown briefly into disarray by the pager attacks, said, it had attacked Israeli artillery positions with rockets. The Israeli military said warning sirens sounded a number of times in northern Israel but there were no reports of any damage or casualties. Israel's spy agency Mossad planted explosives inside pagers imported by Hezbollah months before Tuesday's detonations, a senior Lebanese security source told Reuters. Attack that took place on September 17 wounded many of the militant group's fighters and Iran's envoy to Beirut. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk called for an independent investigation into the events surrounding exploding pagers. Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel, with both sides engaged in cross-border warfare since the Gaza conflict. Hezbollah, Iran's most powerful proxy in the Middle East, said, Israel should await a response to the pager "massacre".