Lebanon: Nine dead and 2,750 wounded after Hezbollah pagers explode

At least nine people killed, including 10-year-old girl, as blasts were reported across Lebanon and Syria

By Nader Durgham in Beirut

Published date: 17 September 2024

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/scores-hezbollah-members-wounded-communications-devices-explode

At least 2,800 people have been wounded and nine people killed in Lebanon after pagers used by Hezbollah exploded, Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said.

Hezbollah said people were killed and wounded by "mysterious explosions" of pagers across "various Hezbollah units and institutions". 

"Hezbollah's specialised security and scientific units are currently conducting a wide-ranging investigation to determine the reasons behind these simultaneous explosions," the group said on Tuesday. 

A 10-year-old girl was killed in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley when the pager of her father, who is a Hezbollah member, exploded, her family told AFP. 

One of the movement's fighters, the son of a Hezbollah MP, was also among those killed, Reuters reported. 

Lebanon's information minister said the government condemned the pager detonations as an act of "Israeli aggression". 

According to Syrian and Iranian media, Hezbollah members were wounded and taken to hospital in Syria too. 

Mojtaba Amani, Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, was among those wounded, according to Iran's Mehr news agency. 

Footage shared on social media from Beirut's southern suburbs, known as Dahiyeh, showed severely wounded and bloodied men being attended to by passers-by. 

Outside the Rafic Hariri University Hospital in southern Beirut, medical staff placed several emergency beds outside the entrance to receive patients as quickly as possible.

Several civilians came to the hospitals to donate blood, after health workers called on people to donate all blood types. 

The affected pagers were from a new shipment that Hezbollah had received in recent days, according to sources familiar with the matter cited by the Wall Street Journal. 

A Hezbollah official told the WSJ that hundreds of fighters had such devices, and speculated that malware may have caused the pagers to heat up and explode. Some people felt the pagers heat up and threw them away before they detonated, the official added. 

A Hezbollah official told Reuters the detonations were the "biggest security breach" since war with Israel broke out a year ago.

Residents in Beirut said blasts were taking place half an hour after the initial explosions and ambulances could be heard non-stop.

Hezbollah urged people to be "cautious of rumours and false, misleading information being circulated by certain parties", which it said "serve the psychological warfare of the Zionist enemy". 

"This comes especially in light of the enemy's threatening rhetoric about changing the situation in the north," it said. 

"We affirm that the resistance, at all levels and across all its units, is fully prepared to defend Lebanon and its resilient people."