Exploding Pagers Target Hezbollah Operatives in Lebanon, Killing 11 and Injuring 4,000
Hezbollah holds Israel responsible as Lebanese authorities investigate synchronized pager explosions that have devastated parts of Beirut and southern Lebanon. Additional fatalities and injuries are reported in Syria.
By Andrea López-Tomàs/The Media Line
No one could have predicted that the deepest chaos Lebanon has faced in years would come from devices in people’s pockets. On Tuesday afternoon, thousands of electronic devices exploded simultaneously. In supermarkets, on the street, and in homes, thousands were injured. With chest wounds, dismembered limbs, or facial injuries, more than 4,000 people are being treated in overwhelmed Lebanese hospitals. Eleven did not survive. The explosion of pagers—messaging devices that don’t require SIM cards or internet connections—killed them. Among the dead are the sons of two parliamentarians representing Hezbollah.
“We are used to seeing serious cases, but we have never seen this many,” a worker at Geitawi Hospital, the only hospital in Lebanon with a specialist burn center, told The Media Line. Ambulances arrived nonstop, skidding at high speed. Bodies wrapped in bandages, with traces of blood on their limbs, were rushed inside. Relatives and neighbors gathered at the doors of the hospital, located in a Christian area of Beirut, waiting for news. Women wearing long abayas, a rare sight in this part of the capital, occasionally let themselves cry.
The first explosions occurred around 3:30 pm local time, bringing widespread confusion. Hezbollah members often carry such devices to communicate without being tracked by Israel. Since October 8, Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been engaged in daily cross-border clashes, which have claimed 623 lives in Lebanon, and 26 civilians and 20 soldiers in Israel.
Despite fiery rhetoric from both sides, recent weeks had been relatively calm until the explosions, which were concentrated in Hezbollah-dominated areas such as the southern suburbs of Beirut known as Dahiyeh (“suburb” in Arabic), southern Lebanon, and the eastern Bekaa Valley.
“After examining all the facts, current data and available information about the sinful attack that took place this afternoon, we hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression, which also targeted civilians and caused the martyrdom of numerous people and injuries to a large number of people,” Hezbollah said in a statement.
The group added, “This traitorous and criminal enemy will certainly receive its just punishment for this sinful aggression, whether it expects it or not.”
Also on Tuesday, Israel’s security cabinet announced expanded war aims, including the return of 60,000 people displaced from their homes in northern Israel by clashes with Hezbollah.
The Lebanese Health Ministry reported that of the 4,000 injured, at least 400 are in critical condition, requiring surgery or intensive care. “We have been receiving critical patients since the explosion,” Dr. Naji Abi Rached, medical director of Geitawi Hospital, told The Media Line. “We are full: the operating room, the emergency room—every patient is critical,” he said, rushing back inside to continue working.
Many victims, according to Health Minister Firas Abiad, have wounds “on the face, hands, stomach, and even the eyes.”
“It really is carnage,” Member of Parliament Melhem Khalaf for the reformist Forces of Change bloc said after visiting the injured. “This massacre was caused by an incredible attack with ultra-sophisticated equipment, targeting civilians in the most inhumane way,” he told The Media Line.
“We must determine how these criminal acts can continue to go unpunished and demand justice,” Khalaf said. “Today, restoring international legitimacy and upholding human rights is essential, or we risk descending into savagery,” he added.
Outside Geitawi Hospital, where the press was denied access, a distressed father waited for news of his son, whose pager had exploded. “I don’t know if my son is a martyr or not, but all possibilities are valid,” Bilal told The Media Line. “This life is better with a death of pride,” he added, tears in his eyes. “My son is a heroic martyr of Lebanon, and he stands with Gaza and the oppressed in Gaza.”
After the attack, Lebanon’s telecommunications minister, Johnny Corm, from the right-wing Maronite Christian Marada Movement, clarified that the pagers were part of a shipment that “recently arrived” in the country. He explained that the batteries overheated, and some people “felt the temperature rise” and threw them away before they exploded.
“Maybe it was activated remotely, but we don’t know how,” Corn added, suggesting that the pagers were likely introduced to Lebanon for this purpose. Fearing further tragedy, medical authorities have urged staff to discard their own pagers.
The Iranian Embassy in Lebanon announced that Ambassador Mojtaba Amani was “superficially wounded” when his pager exploded. In Syria, explosions of electronic devices caused at least seven deaths and 14 injuries, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor. The Lebanese government condemned the “criminal Israeli aggression,” calling it “a major violation of Lebanese security and sovereignty.”
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