Walkie-talkies blow up across Lebanon day after pagers exploded, injuring hundreds

Hundreds of people were injured after a second day of device explosions in southern Beirut – just 24 hours after pagers were detonated in a separate coordinated attack.

Lebanon’s state media agency reported that three people were killed in the attack and security sources said hundreds were injured, while the health ministry said 14 people have been killed and at least 450 people were injured.

Mojtaba Amani, Iran’s envoy to Lebanon, is one of those injured after a pager ‘exploded in his face’, resulting in him losing an eye, The New York Times reports.

Sources told news agency AFP that walkie talkies were detonated in the Hezbollah stronghold of Lebanon’s capital, while security sources told Reuters the devices were ‘hand-held’ radios, different to the pagers that exploded on Tuesday.

Meanwhile security sources also told Reuters that the radios were purchased by the Shiite militant group five months ago, around the same time as the pagers.

Following two consecutive days of blasts, Israel’s defence minister declared a ‘new phase’ of war as the army turns its attention to the northern front with Lebanon. 

Yoav Gallant said the ‘centre of gravity is shifting to the north by diverting resources and forces’.

‘We are at the start of a new phase in the war – it requires courage, determination and perseverance,’ he said.

AP is also citing reports from Lebanon’s official news agency reports that home solar energy systems exploded in several areas of Beirut. The UN Security Council plans to meet Friday over the pager blasts.

Metro.co.uk has not verified these claims.

At least one of the blasts heard took place at the beginning of a funeral procession organised by Hezbollah for those killed the previous day when thousands of pagers used by the group detonated across the country.

One video showed mourners screaming and running away as the procession was interrupted by a blast.

Mariam Karouny, a journalist based in Lebanon, told Metro the explosions yesterday were a ‘surprise’ to everyone.

Both yesterday and today people across Lebanon began queueing to donate blood at hospitals, which was ’emotional’ to see.

‘I was at a donation spot in the southern suburbs of Beirut and I saw many women who were not Hezbollah – and not wearing a hijab – queuing to donate blood,’ she said.

Hospitals have been overwhelmed, and Ms Karouny said she saw some women begin to cry after being told they wouldn’t be able to donate, as there was a priority need for rare blood types.

The attacks have left the community angry, however, with many civilians injured, and three children killed in the chaos of the explosions.

Ms Karouny added: ‘People are shocked and angry at Israel. Many have been saying ‘This is what Israel really is’, and ‘it shows they want to kill everyone’. People feel that Israel won’t spare anyone.’

The plot appears to have been many months in the making, several sources told Reuters.

It followed a series of assassinations of Hezbollah and Hamas commanders and leaders blamed on Israel since the start of the Gaza war.

Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel, whose military declined to comment on the blasts. The two sides have been engaged in cross-border warfare since the Gaza conflict erupted last October, fuelling fears of a wider Middle East conflict that could drag in the United States and Iran.

A full-blown war with Israel could devastate Lebanon, which has lurched from one crisis to another in recent years, including a 2019 financial collapse and the 2020 Beirut port blast.

UN Chief António Guterres said the pager blasts have indicated a ‘serious risk of a dramatic escalation in Lebanon’ and warned it was important to not weaponise ‘civilian objects’.

Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine said the group is facing a ‘new phase’, and ‘punishment is certainly coming’.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, called for an independent investigation into the events surrounding exploding pagers that killed at least 12 people in Syria and Lebanon.

The simultaneous targeting of thousands of individuals, without knowing who held the devices or their location violated international human rights law and possibly international humanitarian law, Turk said in a statement.

He said: ‘There must be an independent, thorough and transparent investigation as to the circumstances of these mass explosions, and those who ordered and carried out such an attack must be held to account.’

The death toll from Tuesday’s blasts rose to 12, including two children, Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said on Wednesday. Tuesday’s attack wounded nearly 3,000 people, including many of the militant group’s fighters and Iran’s envoy to Beirut.

Lebanon’s health minister Firass Abiad then said five more people died, with the son of Ali Ammar, Hezbollah member of the Lebanese parliament, confirmed to be one of those killed.

A Hezbollah official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the detonation of the pagers was the ‘biggest security breach’ the group had been subjected to in nearly a year of war with Israel.

Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was among injured by the explosion, Iran’s Mehr news agency reported.

Elijah J Magnier, a Brussels-based senior political risk analyst, said the pagers all vibrated and beeped for ten seconds, but when the user pressed the button to cancel the alert, they detonated.

A Taiwanese pager maker denied that it had produced the pager devices which exploded in an audacious attack that raised the prospect of a full-scale war between the Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel.

Gold Apollo said the devices were made by under licence by a company called BAC, based in Hungary’s capital Budapest.

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