A fresh wave of explosions ripped across Lebanon on Wednesday afternoon, appearing to mainly target handheld radios used by Hezbollah members, a day after thousands were wounded when their pagers spontaneously exploded in a coordinated attack widely blamed on Israel after months of cross-border fire.
At least 20 people were killed and 450 were wounded in Wednesday’s second wave of blasts, according to Lebanese officials. An Israeli report said Jerusalem believes the death toll to be higher than reported, with Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit hit hard by the two days of attacks.
Explosions were reported Wednesday in phones, solar energy systems and fingerprint reading devices used by the group.
At least one of the blasts took place at a funeral organized by Iran-backed Hezbollah for some of the 12 people killed in the pager explosion attack on Tuesday.
An AP photographer in the southern coastal city of Sidon saw a car and a mobile phone shop that were damaged by devices exploding inside of them.
“A number of walkie-talkies exploded in Beirut’s southern suburbs,” a source told Reuters, with Hezbollah-affiliated rescuers confirming devices had exploded inside two cars in the area.
Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV reported explosions in multiple areas of Lebanon, and a Hezbollah official told The Associated Press that walkie-talkies used by the group exploded as part of blasts heard in Beirut. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Images circulating online purported to show the devices, which appeared to be different and larger than the pagers that exploded Tuesday. The handheld radios were purchased by Hezbollah five months ago, around the same time that the pagers were bought, said a security source.
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, tossing the parts in metal barrels around them.
Images of the exploded walkie-talkies examined by Reuters showed an inside panel labeled “ICOM” and “Made in Japan.” According to its website, ICOM is a Japan-based radio communications and telephone company.
Lebanon’s Red Cross said on X that it was responding with 30 ambulance teams to multiple explosions in different areas.
Lebanon’s official news agency reported that solar energy systems exploded in homes in several areas of Beirut and in southern Lebanon, wounding at least one girl.
The reports of further electronic devices exploding suggested even greater infiltration into Hezbollah’s supply chain than was previously thought.
According to a Ynet report, Israel believes Hezbollah’s toll from the attacks over the last two days is much higher than the official numbers released so far.
“The estimation is that there are many dozens of dead, if not more,” veteran investigative reporter and analyst Ronen Bergman wrote, without naming his sources.
Bergman added that Israel believes the explosions caused “significant harm” to Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit, with much of its leadership taken out of action.
The new round of explosions on Wednesday came as Lebanon and Hezbollah were still struggling to come to terms with the shock and scale of Tuesday’s attack. Israel has not commented on the pager explosions, although US officials have indicated to some foreign media outlets that Jerusalem was behind the attack.
The death toll from Tuesday’s blasts rose to 12, including two children, Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said on Wednesday. Tuesday’s attack wounded nearly 3,000 people, including many of the terror group’s fighters and Iran’s envoy to Beirut.
THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
