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Deaths reported as more communication devices explode in Lebanon

Deaths reported as more communication devices explode in Lebanon
By Farah Najjar
Published On 18 Sep 2024

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18 Sep 2024 - 23:59
 (23:59 GMT)

Thank you for joining us

Israel and its spy agency Mossad are accused of orchestrating the explosion of thousands of electronic devices that killed and maimed civilians and Hezbollah operatives across Lebanon. Read our explainer here.

For more details on the United Nations General Assembly and its move to overwhelmingly adopt a resolution calling on Israel to end its illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories within a year, see our story here.

And you can always find all our latest coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza here.

18 Sep 2024 - 23:55
 (23:55 GMT)

Here’s what happened today

We’ll be closing this live page soon. Here’s a recap of the day’s main developments:

  • Multiple blasts detonated in different parts of Lebanon killed at least 20 people and injured more than 450 others – just a day after simultaneous explosions of pagers used by Hezbollah members killed 12 people and wounded nearly 3,000.
  • Israel’s defence minister declared the start of a “new phase” in the Gaza war, saying after months of fighting against Hamas, “the centre of gravity is shifting to the north by diverting resources and forces”.
  • The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution calling on Israel to end its illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories within a year.
  • Dozens of Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip, the civil defence agency said, including on another school in the Shujayea neighbourhood east of Gaza City.
  • Israeli soldiers shot and killed 16-year-old Hani Majdi al-Kari in the Shu’fat refugee camp, in occupied East Jerusalem, when special forces raided the camp.
18 Sep 2024 - 23:40
 (23:40 GMT)

‘Israel is ready for war’: Troops drawn from Gaza to northern border

While the daily fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has escalated on several occasions, the bitter enemies have been careful to avoid an all-out war.

That appears to be changing – especially after pagers, walkie-talkies, solar equipment and other devices exploded in Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday, killing at least 20 and wounding thousands in a sophisticated attack Hezbollah blamed on Israel.

“You don’t do something like that, hit thousands of people, and think war is not coming,” said retired Israeli Brigadier-General Amir Avivi, who leads Israel Defence and Security Forum, a group of hawkish former military commanders.

“Why didn’t we do it for 11 months? Because we were not willing to go to war yet. What’s happening now? Israel is ready for war.”

The military also said it staged a series of war drills this week along the border. “The mission is clear,” said Major-General Ori Gordin, who heads Israel’s Northern Command. “We are determined to change the security reality as soon as possible.”

18 Sep 2024 - 23:25
 (23:25 GMT)

‘Indiscriminate’ nature of explosions has Lebanese people on edge

David Wood, senior Lebanon analyst with the International Crisis Group, says no one could have expected Tuesday’s deadly blasts would be followed up with even more killings through rigged electronic devices.

“For it to happen a second day in a row, this time with different devices, was something incredibly surprising. The reaction here in Lebanon has been one of surprise at the wide-ranging nature of the attacks, and also the fact they’re very indiscriminate in terms of where these pagers and walkie-talkies were located,” Wood told Al Jazeera from Beirut.

“They might be owned by Hezbollah, but that is no guarantee the only target that will be struck when they detonate is a Hezbollah member. And indeed, civilians have been wounded and killed, so it’s a really concerning time in Lebanon.”

18 Sep 2024 - 23:10
 (23:10 GMT)

Five killed in Israeli attack on home in Gaza City

Several others have been wounded in the air strike, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reports, citing medical sources.

The attack struck a residential home in northern Gaza City’s Sabra neighbourhood.

Since October 2023, at least 41,272 people have been killed and 95,551 wounded – mostly children and women – in Israel’s war on Gaza.

18 Sep 2024 - 22:55
 (22:55 GMT)
Explainer

More devices exploding across Lebanon: What’s happening?

One day after thousands of pagers exploded across Lebanon, more explosions of electronic devices, including walkie-talkies, laptops and radios, killed at least 20 people and injured 450.

On Tuesday, the detonation of pagers belonging to Hezbollah members allegedly preloaded with explosives killed 12 people and wounded nearly 3,000.

Israel’s long-term strategy is unclear, but the attacks are a notable escalation against Hezbollah and Lebanon. They come after months of a mostly low-intensity conflict between the two foes.

Read the full story here.

18 Sep 2024 - 22:40
 (22:40 GMT)

Hezbollah official says armed group now in a ‘new confrontation’

Hashem Safieddine, head of Hezbollah’s executive council, says the Lebanese group will respond to the mass attacks with “special punishment”.

The group is in a “new confrontation with the enemy” now, Safieddine said.

It remains unclear what will happen next with fears of a wider Middle East war and Israeli leaders pledging to halt nearly a year of Hezbollah attacks in the north in support of the Palestinians, as Israel’s devastating war on Gaza continues.

As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu huddled with top security officials at Israeli military headquarters in Tel Aviv, the country’s army chief, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, said plans have been drawn up for additional action against Hezbollah.

Hezbollah fighters take part in a military exercise in Aaramta, bordering Israel [File: Anwar Amro/AFP]
18 Sep 2024 - 22:25
 (22:25 GMT)

‘Weaponising an object used by civilians is strictly prohibited’

While the pagers and walkie-talkies rigged to explode were used by Hezbollah members, there was no guarantee who was holding the device at the time it detonated.

Many of the casualties were not Hezbollah fighters but members of the group’s extensive civilian operations mainly serving Lebanon’s Shia community. At least two health workers were among those killed on Tuesday.

Doctors, nurses, paramedics, charity workers, teachers and office administrators work for Hezbollah-linked organisations, and an unknown number had pagers.

Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor of law and international peace studies at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, said booby traps are banned under international law. “Weaponising an object used by civilians is strictly prohibited,” she said.

The UN human rights chief, Volker Turk, called for an independent investigation into the mass explosions, saying, “the fear and terror unleashed is profound”.

In the village of Nabi Sheet in the Bekaa Valley, dozens gathered to mourn nine-year-old Fatima Abdullah, another victim of a pager blast. Her mother – wearing black and donning a yellow Hezbollah scarf – wept alongside other women and children as they gathered around the little girl’s coffin before her burial.

A man holds a walkie-talkie device after he removed the battery in Beirut on Wednesday [Anwar Amro/AFP]
18 Sep 2024 - 22:10
 (22:10 GMT)
Analysis

Lebanon attacks show how Hezbollah’s defence apparatus is ‘exposed’

Sami Nader, director of the Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs, says the Lebanon blasts are raising “so many questions” about what is expected to unfold.

The attacks are “a major blow to Hezbollah’s defence apparatus and shows how much Hezbollah’s system of defence is exposed to Israeli military infiltration”, Nader told Al Jazeera from Beirut.

Any full-blown war, he said, will extend to include organisations working with Iran in neighbouring Syria or Iraq.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah “definitely” faces pressure to respond to these attacks, Nader said. Since 2006, when Hezbollah and Israel fought a war, Nasrallah “built on this image of invincibility”.

“In 2006, he [Nasrallah] was the hero of the whole Arab world because he dared to confront Israel, and he was victorious. Today, things are different.”

Nasrallah is expected to deliver a speech on Thursday addressing the spate of explosions against Hezbollah and Lebanese civilians.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah gives a televised address in August [Al-Manar TV via Reuters]
18 Sep 2024 - 21:55
 (21:55 GMT)

Device detonations: Has Israel carried out such attacks before?

By Maziar Motamedi

Israel and its spy agency Mossad are accused of orchestrating the explosion of thousands of pagers that killed and maimed civilians and Hezbollah operatives across Lebanon.

The method and scale of the attack – which Hezbollah ally Iran branded “mass murder” – are unprecedented, but Israel has been carrying out assassinations and sabotage operations for decades.

Read the full story here.

18 Sep 2024 - 21:40
 (21:40 GMT)

‘Mossad infiltrated the supply chain’

Analysts say Israeli operatives likely planted explosives into communication devices before they were delivered to Hezbollah.

“This was more than lithium batteries being forced into override,” said Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute.

“A small plastic explosive was almost certainly concealed alongside the battery for remote detonation via a call or page,” the analyst said, adding Israel’s spy agency “Mossad infiltrated the supply chain”.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib warned the “blatant assault on Lebanon’s sovereignty and security” was a dangerous development that could “signal a wider war”.

Amos Harel of Israel’s Haaretz newspaper said the pager and walkie-talkie blasts had put “Israel and Hezbollah on the brink of all-out war”.

18 Sep 2024 - 21:30
 (21:30 GMT)

Hundreds remain displaced after latest Israeli incursion into West Bank

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says at least 82 Palestinian families – some 360 people – remain displaced after the deadly raids by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank’s Tulkarem and Tubas.

According to OCHA, Israeli forces damaged 660 housing units in their large-scale incursion. It also warned the school year faces “major challenges”, with 782,000 students affected by movement restrictions and violence by Jewish settlers from illegal settlements.

Additionally, 58 schools are at risk of demolition, it said.

 

18 Sep 2024 - 21:20
 (21:20 GMT)

Western diplomats to discuss Middle East crisis on Thursday: Report

Senior diplomats from the United States, Britain, Germany, France and Italy will meet on Thursday in France to discuss the rising tensions in the Middle East after the mass attacks on Lebanon.

AFP news agency, citing unidentified sources, reported the meeting will take place as fears grow of an all-out war engulfing the region, with conflict raging in Gaza and after two days of exploding devices in Lebanon – an unprecedented attack Hezbollah has blamed on Israel.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to join in Paris after discussing the possibility of a Gaza war truce in Cairo.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken [File: Roberto Schmidt via AP Photo]
18 Sep 2024 - 21:10
 (21:10 GMT)

Palestinian Authority warns of ‘dangerous escalation’

The Palestinian Authority (PA) government denounced the deadly explosions in Lebanon and offered to help treat some of the thousands wounded in Palestinian hospitals and clinics inside Lebanon.

In a statement released by Palestinian news agency Wafa, the PA offered Lebanon’s cabinet its “deepest condolences”, adding that it stands with the Lebanese people.

It warned against the consequences of this “dangerous escalation” and called on the international community to take “urgent action to prevent the situation from exploding” in the region.

18 Sep 2024 - 21:00
 (21:00 GMT)
Analysis

Netanyahu may be ‘going for a gigantic diversion’ with Lebanon war

Paul Rogers, from the University of Bradford and author of The Insecurity Trap, says it is clear Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu doesn’t want a ceasefire “in any form” with Hamas in Gaza or Hezbollah in Lebanon, with the US presidential election coming in November.

He highlighted the Israeli military losses and difficulties holding territory after the invasions of southern Lebanon in 1982 and 2006, noting the war on Gaza has yet to be won by Israel.

“What we’re seeing now is the Israelis trying to damage the overall psychology of Hezbollah by what they’re doing. But the thing one has to remember is Israel is highly unlikely to try to occupy southern Lebanon with a ground incursion – other than a very short probing attack,” Rogers told Al Jazeera.

“The war on Gaza is failing as far as the Israelis are concerned. They cannot actually get rid of Hamas, and any kind of presence where Hamas even exists there is unacceptable to them. They are in a major bind, and it very well may be the fundamental reason why Netanyahu is going for this phase of the war with Lebanon is a gigantic diversion.”

18 Sep 2024 - 20:50
 (20:50 GMT)
Houthi

Day’s death toll in device blasts hits 20 in Lebanon

The number of people killed on Wednesday in Lebanon in explosions of electronic devices has risen to 20 with hundreds more wounded, the Health Ministry says.

“The wave of enemy explosions that targeted walkie talkies … killed 20 people and wounded more than 450,” the ministry said in a statement.

On Tuesday, 12 people – including children – were killed and 3,500 injured in blasts of handheld pagers, a device used by the Lebanese group Hezbollah, but also civilians, to communicate.

New attacks on Wednesday blew up other communications devices, including smartphones, laptops and walkie-talkies, wounding at least 450 people.

18 Sep 2024 - 20:40
 (20:40 GMT)

Iran to follow up on attack targeting ambassador in Lebanon, says UN envoy

Iran will follow up on an attack targeting its ambassador in Lebanon, the Iranian envoy to the United Nations said in a letter.

Tehran “reserves its rights under international law to take required measures deemed necessary to respond”, it said.

Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was slightly injured on Tuesday by the explosion of an electronic pager, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported.

“Amani has a superficial injury and is currently under observation in a hospital,” Fars quoted an unnamed source as saying.

18 Sep 2024 - 20:30
 (20:30 GMT)

White House warns against ‘escalation’ after Lebanon blasts

The White House has warned all sides in the conflict against regional escalation after two days of explosions in Lebanon, widely blamed on Israel.

“We still don’t want to see an escalation of any kind. We don’t believe that the way to solve where we’re at in this crisis is by additional military operations at all,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

Kirby added that the United States was not involved in the device blasts.

Hand-held radios used by the Lebanese group Hezbollah detonated on Wednesday across Lebanon’s south, in Beirut’s suburbs, and the Bekaa Valley, further stoking tensions with Israel a day after similar explosions of Hezbollah pagers.

A radio device that exploded in the city of Baalbek [Suleiman Amhaz/Anadolu]
18 Sep 2024 - 20:20
 (20:20 GMT)

Stability of Middle East threatened after attacks on Lebanon: Hamas

Hamas has blamed Israel for a new wave of electronic device explosions in Lebanon that have killed 14 people and wounded more than 450 today.

“We strongly condemn the renewed and ongoing Zionist aggression against the Lebanese people,” Hamas said in a statement, adding that the attack, a day after pagers blew up, killing 12 people and wounding 2,800, “now threatens the security and stability of the region”.

18 Sep 2024 - 20:10
 (20:10 GMT)

‘Still unclear’ what Israeli army intends after moving battalion to north

By Hamdah Salhut

Reporting from Amman, Jordan

Al Jazeera is reporting from outside Israel because it has been banned by the Israeli government.

There has been no sort of plan whatsoever for Israel’s northern border. The evacuation of tens of thousands of people in these towns and settlements has been extended time and time again with no sort of timeline as to when they’re going to go back.

Netanyahu added a fourth goal to his war objectives, including returning evacuated Israelis to those areas in the north. But what exactly that means and the measures that will be taken – it’s still unclear.

The Israeli military did in fact move one of its battalions up north. But it’s unclear what exactly the army is hoping to do. We’ve heard for months it’s allocating resources to the northern border.

Around the security realm, some are saying perhaps this is all talk, that this “entry into a new phase” is really just to appease the public – frustrated with their government after nearly a year into this war on Gaza with no plan on how it’s going to end.