Nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded after thousands of pagers detonated across Lebanon, in an incident Hezbollah blamed on IsraelAnalysis: Hezbollah pager explosions, if caused by the Mossad, would be a big escalationHello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.Hezbollah has said it “will continue” its operations to “support Gaza”, after a deadly wave of exploding pagers killed 9 people and wounded almost 3,000 more.Among those killed on Tuesday was an 10-year-old girl, according to Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad. The latest casualty figures by officials include about 2,750 wounded, with most injuries to the face and hands. Those wounded include Iran’s ambassador to Beirut, Mojtaba Amani.Hezbollah fighters in Syria were also injured in the attack, with several reportedly being treated in hospitals in Damascus. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards-affiliated Saberin News reported that some guards in Syria had also been killed.The pager explosions across Lebanon marked “an extremely concerning escalation,” the UN’s special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, said. The spokesperson for the secretary general of the United Nations, Stéphane Dujarric, noted the “extremely volatile” context.A Hezbollah official said the detonation of the pagers was the biggest security breach for the group in nearly a year of conflict with Israel. The blasts appeared to exploit the low-tech pagers that Hezbollah has adopted in order to prevent the targeted assassinations of its members. Lebanon’s foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, said the country was bracing for a major retaliation by Hezbollah.Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel. “We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression that also targeted civilians,” a statement said. The son of the Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar reportedly also died in the explosions, as did two sons of other prominent Hezbollah figures.There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the blasts. The attack took place just hours after Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the war sparked by the 7 October Hamas attacks to include its fight against Hezbollah.Lebanon’s health ministry put hospitals across the country on “maximum alert” and instructed citizens to distance themselves from wireless communication devices. Schools in Lebanon will close on Wednesday.The US government said it “was not aware of this incident in advance”. The state department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, told a briefing that Washington was not involved and did not know who was responsible. He added it was “too early to say” how it would affect Gaza ceasefire talks.The Foreign Office has urged “calm heads and de-escalation”. An FCDO spokesperson said: “We continue to monitor the situation in Lebanon closely and the UK is working with diplomatic and humanitarian partners in the region. The civilian casualties following these explosions are deeply distressing. Continue reading…
Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/sep/18/middle-east-crisis-live-hezbollah-pager-explosion-lebanon-irael-iran-latest-updates
Author : Jonathan Yerushalmy
Publish date : 2024-09-18 05:12:49
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Middle East crisis live: Hezbollah says it will continue operations to ‘support Gaza’, after exploding pager attack
