Hezbollah hand-held radios detonate across Lebanon in second day of blasts

BEIRUT: Hand-held radios used by Lebanese armed group Hezbollah detonated on Wednesday (Sep 18) across Lebanon’s south, in Beirut suburbs and the Bekaa Valley, further stoking tensions with Israel a day after similar explosions by the group’s pagers.
Lebanon’s health ministry said 14 people had been killed and 450 injured on Wednesday, while the death toll from Tuesday’s explosions rose to 12, including two children, with nearly 3,000 injured.
At least one of Wednesday’s blasts took place near a funeral organised by Iran-backed Hezbollah for those killed the previous day when thousands of pagers used by the group exploded across the country and wounded many of its fighters.
A Reuters reporter in the southern suburbs of Beirut said he saw Hezbollah members frantically taking batteries out of any walkie-talkies on them that had not exploded, tossing the parts in metal barrels.
The hand-held radios were purchased by Hezbollah five months ago, around the same time as the pagers, a security source said.
Israel’s spy agency Mossad, which has a long history of sophisticated operations on foreign soil, planted explosives inside pagers imported by Hezbollah months before Tuesday’s detonations, a senior Lebanese security source and another source told Reuters.
Israel’s military has declined to comment on the blasts.
Tuesday’s attack wounded many of the militant group’s fighters and Iran’s envoy to Beirut.
Frontline workers described hellish scenes: victims of thousands of small explosions linked to pagers used by Hezbollah rushed into hospitals, some with organs protruding, others with missing eyes or fingers.
Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel. The two sides have been engaged in cross-border warfare since the Gaza conflict erupted last October, fuelling fears of a wider Middle East war that could drag in the United States and Iran.
A full-blown war with Israel could devastate Lebanon, which has lurched from one crisis to another in recent years, including a 2019 financial collapse and the 2020 Beirut port blast.
Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi accused Israel of pushing the Middle East to the brink of a regional war by orchestrating a dangerous escalation on many fronts.
“Hezbollah wants to avoid an all-out war. It still wants to avoid one. But given the scale, the impact on families, on civilians, there will be pressure for a stronger response,” said Mohanad Hage Ali of the Carnegie Middle East Center.