Pager Explosions Leave 11 Dead and Over 2,800 Injured in Lebanon
Lebanese citizen injured by pager explosion, Sept. 17, 2024. X/ @RRespawned
September 17, 2024 Hour: 12:25 pm
‘The devices were possibly activated remotely, but we don’t know how,’ Telecommunications Minister Corn said.
On Tuesday, the Lebanese Health Ministry reported that the explosion of pager devices belonging to Hezbollah fighters left 11 people dead and over 2,800 injured across Lebanon and Syria.
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“The explosions appear to be a major security failure for the Lebanese militant group. No group has claimed responsibility, but suspicion immediately fell on Israel’s intelligence services,” the online newspaper Axion reported.
“A Lebanese government spokesperson said the government sees Israel as responsible for the pager explosions and considers the attacks a violation of Lebanese sovereignty,” it added.
The pagers were part of a shipment that recently arrived in Lebanon, Telecommunications Minister Johanny Corn said, indicating that the batteries of the pagers heated up, so some people felt the increase in temperature of the device and threw it away before it exploded.
“The devices were possibly activated remotely, but we don’t know how,” Corn said, suggesting that the pagers were most likely introduced into Lebanon for that purpose.
“We must know how and when this shipment of pagers entered Lebanon, which company they belong to, and who owns it. We must know more details to know how these devices work,” the Lebanese minister stressed.
A few minutes after the coordinated attack on several pagers, the Hezbollah resistance movement issued a statement reporting what happened.
“At approximately 3:30 PM on Tuesday, several communication devices known as ‘pagers’ carried by a number of workers in various units and institutions of Hezbollah exploded. These explosions, whose causes still remain unknown, have resulted in the martyrdom of a young girl and two of our brothers so far, and have injured a large number of others with varying degrees of severity,” it said.
“We affirm that the resistance, at all levels and across its various units, remains at the highest level of preparedness to defend Lebanon and its steadfast people,” Hezbollah added.
teleSUR/ JF Source: Axios – EFE – Xinhua
