Key Points
- Hand-held radios used by militant group Hezbollah have detonated across Lebanon's south.
- At least 20 people have been killed and 450 injured a day after pager explosions killed 12 people and injured 3,000.
- Following the wave of device explosions, Israel bombed southern Lebanon on Thursday.
Hand-held radios used by Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have detonated across Lebanon's south, in Beirut suburbs and the Bekaa Valley, further stoking tensions with Israel a day
Lebanon's health ministry said 20 people had been killed and 450 injured on Wednesday while the number of people killed from Tuesday's explosions rose to 12, including two children, with nearly 3,000 injured.
Those killed or injured in Tuesday's attack included Iran's envoy to Lebanon and some of the militant group's fighters.
At least one of Wednesday's blasts took place near a funeral organised by Hezbollah for those killed the previous day.
Lebanon's Red Cross said on X that it was responding with 30 ambulance teams to multiple explosions in different areas.
Victims of thousands of the explosions were rushed into hospitals, some with organs protruding, others with faces missing eyes or hands missing fingers.
A Reuters reporter in the southern suburbs of Beirut said he saw Hezbollah members frantically taking out the batteries of any walkie-talkies on them that had not exploded and tossing the parts into metal barrels.
The group, which was thrown briefly into disarray by the pager attacks, said on Wednesday it had attacked Israeli artillery positions with rockets.
It followed a series of and leaders blamed on Israel since the start of the Gaza war and a massive
Israeli officials have not commented on the blasts but security sources have pointed the finger at Israel's spy agency Mossad, which has a long history of sophisticated operations on foreign soil.
Mossad operatives planted explosives inside pagers imported by Hezbollah months before Tuesday's detonations, a senior Lebanese security source and another source told Reuters.
One Hezbollah official said the detonation was the group's "biggest security breach" in its history.
Japanese, Bulgarian companies issue statements on devices
Images of the exploded walkie-talkies examined by Reuters showed an inside panel labelled "ICOM" and "made in Japan". According to its website, ICOM is a Japan-based radio communications and telephone company.
The company said on Thursday it was investigating news reports of the two-way radio devices bearing its logo exploding in Lebanon and would release updated information as it becomes available on its website.
The Osaka-based firm said its products for overseas markets are sold exclusively through authorised distributors and it vets exports in accordance with Japan's security trade control regulations.
The company, which says it manufactures all of its radios in Japan, could not confirm whether it had shipped the device, in part because that model had been discontinued 10 years ago.
The company has said that production of several models of the ICOM hand-held radio had been discontinued, including the IC-V82, which appeared to closely match those in images from Lebanon on Wednesday and was phased out by ICOM in 2014.
The company has previously warned about counterfeit versions of its devices circulating in the market, especially discontinued models.
The hand-held radios were purchased by Hezbollah five months ago, about the same time that the pagers were bought, a security source said.
Meanwhile, Bulgaria has said it will investigate a company linked to the sale of pagers to Hezbollah, the state security agency said on Thursday.
The agency said it was working with the interior ministry to probe the role of a company registered in Bulgaria, without naming it.
An Apollo pager, similar to the ones that exploded on 17 September 17 in various cities of Lebanon and Syria, in an unprecedented attack on Hezbollah personnel. Source: AAP / Balkis Press / ABACA / PA
Company officials and a lawyer who registered the company at an apartment block in Sofia did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment.
Images of destroyed pagers analysed by Reuters showed a format consistent with pagers made by Taiwan Gold Apollo, but the company said on Wednesday that the pagers were made by Budapest-based BAC Consulting.
But Hungarian news site Telex reported that the sale was actually facilitated by Norta, citing sources.
The Bulgarian state security agency said that it did not detect any shipments of the suspected pagers on Bulgarian territory
Calls for investigation, risk of widening conflict
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk called for an independent investigation into the events surrounding exploding pagers.
In a post on X, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati called on the United Nations Security Council to take a firm stand to stop Israel's "aggression" and "technological war" against his country.
Jordan's foreign minister Ayman Safadi accused Israel of pushing the Middle East to the brink of a regional war by orchestrating a dangerous escalation on many fronts.
The US, which denied any involvement in the blasts, said it was pursuing intensive diplomacy to avert an escalation of the conflict.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Israel told Washington on Tuesday it was going to do something in Lebanon but did not provide details.
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Hezbollah leader: 'This is an open battle on all fronts'
SBS News
02/08/202405:53
Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel, saying in a statement that it would continue to support Hamas in Gaza and Israel should await a response to the pager "massacre".
The Israeli military has declined to comment on the blasts.
However, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said: "We are opening a new phase in the war. It requires courage, determination and perseverance from us,"
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.
Following the wave of device explosions, Israel bombed southern Lebanon on Thursday.
Israel said its warplanes struck villages in southern Lebanon overnight, and a security source and Hezbollah's al-Manar TV reported airstrikes near the border resumed on Thursday just after midday.
The Israeli military said its overnight air strikes hit Hezbollah targets in Chihine, Tayibe, Blida, Meiss El Jabal, Aitaroun and Kfarkela in southern Lebanon, as well as a Hezbollah weapons storage facility in the area of Khiam.
Israeli media reported that a number of Israeli civilians had been wounded by anti-tank missile fire from Lebanon, but there was no official confirmation.
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.
