At least Nine people have so far confirmed dead, and over 2,750 others injured across Lebanon following a series of explosions involving handheld pagers used by the officials of Hezbollah.
AlJazeera reports that the pagers were hacked and detonated in a coordinated attack, resulting a serious escalation in the ongoing hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group.
A Hezbollah official, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the incident as the “biggest security breach” the organization has faced in nearly a year of continuous cross-border conflict with Israel.
The Israeli military has yet to comment on the incident.
Witnesses across Lebanon shared images of the aftermath, showing injured individuals on the ground and hospitals overwhelmed with patients in urgent need of blood donations.
Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, had previously instructed his fighters to halt using smartphones due to concerns that Israeli technology could infiltrate the devices.
The group relies heavily on pagers to secure its communications, and there is speculation that the devices were tampered with before being distributed to members.
Another source suggested that the explosions were remotely activated, indicating the involvement of a third party in the breach.
“These explosions are powerful enough to impact the morale of Hezbollah,” the source added.
The conflict between Hezbollah and Israel is the consequence of the 11-month war on Gaza by the Israeli forces.
At least 41,252 Palestinians were killed and 95,497 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza.
The October 7 attacks by Hamas resulted in the death of at least 1,139 Israelites with over 200 held captives.
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