Eight killed, 2,800 injured, as Hezbollah fighters’ pagers explode in alleged Israeli attack

AT least eight people were killed and about 2,800 wounded by exploding handheld pagers across Lebanon, the country’s health minister has said.

Firass Abiad said more than 200 people are in critical condition after the communication devices exploded on Tuesday, and more than 150 hospitals are treating the victims, with injuries mostly reported to the face, hands and stomach, Aljazeera reported.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah blamed Israel for the spree of pager blasts, saying it will get “its fair punishment”, according to a statement released by the Iran-backed group which has been exchanging almost daily cross-border fire with Israel for almost a year.

There was no comment on the blasts from the Israeli military.

Hezbollah said in an earlier statement on Tuesday that two of its fighters and a girl were killed as “pagers belonging to employees of various Hezbollah units and institutions exploded”.

A Hezbollah official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the explosion of the pagers was the “biggest security breach” the group has experienced since October 7, when Israel’s war on Gaza began following the Hamas-led attacks on Israel.

Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was among those injured by the pager explosions on Tuesday, Iran’s Mehr news agency reported.

According to Aljazeera, it appears the devices were hacked and detonated in a coordinated attack, which represented a “major development” in the hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese group.

“This is a major security breach. Hezbollah’s communication devices have been compromised. We have seen pictures from across Lebanon of men lying on the floor wounded, bleeding. We have seen reports of hospitals asking for blood,” she said.

She said “near-simultaneous explosions” were reported in southern Lebanon, in the east of the country and in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where there was widespread panic.

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