This is awful and strange at the same time:
Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel after pagers used by its members exploded across Lebanon simultaneously, killing at least nine people and wounding almost 3,000 in a dramatic and unprecedented attack at a time of heightened tensions in the Middle East.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the blasts, which came just hours after Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the war sparked by the Hamas attacks on 7 October to include its fight against Hezbollah along the border with Lebanon.
Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, said the blasts on Tuesday killed a 10-year-old girl, among others. “About 2,750 people were injured … more than 200 of them critically,” with injuries mostly reported to the face, hands and stomach, Abiad told a press conference.
The apparent sabotage attack followed months of targeted assassinations by Israel against senior Hezbollah leaders and came as US officials try to de-escalate tensions between the two sides and remain concerned that Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, could order a ground invasion of Lebanon. It threatens to derail efforts by the US to prevent Iran, which backs the Lebanese Shia militia, from retaliating against Israel for the July bombing in Tehran that killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.
The blasts appeared to exploit the low-tech pagers that Hezbollah has adopted in order to prevent the targeted assassinations of its members, who could be tracked by mobile phone signals. Those wounded in the attack include Iran’s ambassador to Beirut, Mojtaba Amani, according to reports.
There’s a graphic video of a pager exploding in a grocery store at the Post, and just from a technology perspective, I’m amazed at the force of however much explosive was packed into a device that’s generally smaller than a deck of cards. Whoever did this — and how could it be anyone but Israel — had to know that there was a huge potential for collateral damage of innocent bystanders.
