After Tuesday’s apparent strike targeted hundreds of Hezbollah terrorists carrying pagers, a second wave of blasts have reportedly hit the terrorist group’s communication devices. Thousands of Hezbollah walkie talkies exploded across Lebanon, media report on Wednesday suggest.
At least 9 suspected terrorists were killed and hundreds other Hezbollah operatives inured in the second wave of blasts, initial reports indicate. “Lebanon’s health ministry says nine people have been killed and more than 300 are wounded in the walkie-talkie blasts across Lebanon this afternoon,” The Times of Israel reported.
“A day after the unprecedented operation in which thousands of pagers exploded across Lebanon, explosions again are heard in Beirut and in other areas across Lebanon. According to reports from Lebanon, late Wednesday afternoon hand-held radios exploded in several areas of Beirut and southern Lebanon,” Israeli news website YNET reports.
Blasts were also reported in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah is preparing the ground for a wider offensive against Israel. “According to the reports, there are casualties in the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeht, and in Al-Azia and Sarfand in southern Lebanon. The explosions occurred in many houses, as well as in vehicles, according to local reports. A security official told the Reuters news agency that the hand-held radios that exploded Wednesday are different from the pagers that exploded on Tuesday,’ the Israeli news outlet added.
Unconfirmed news reports suggest that lithium batteries connected to solar energy systems were also hit by explosions, prompting Hezbollah to urge its terror operatives to throw away such equipment.
“Unofficial reports also claimed that Hezbollah told its members to dispose of devices containing a lithium battery or that are connected to the internet,” the Jerusalem Post reported. “Additional unconfirmed reports claimed that lithium batteries for solar energy storage had detonated and that some houses were on fire.”
The terrorist death toll rose to 12 and around 2,800 were injured — many of them seriously — from exploding Hezbollah pagers across Lebanon. The blasts began later afternoon with “smoke coming from people’s pockets, before seeing small explosions that sounded like fireworks and gunshots,” BBC reported citing eyewitnesses.
Pager-related blasts were also reported in neighbouring Syria where Hezbollah has expanded its terrorist operation at Iran’s behest.
Replacing mobile phones with antiquated pagers was Hezbollah terror chief Hassan Nasrallah’s brilliant idea to ‘fly under the radar’ with a low-tech solution. Earlier this year, the terrorist group seems to have ordered 3000 pagers from Taiwan and distributed them among its operatives in Lebanon and Syria.
At least one of the Hezbollah pagers made its way to the Iranian ambassador in Lebanon, highlighting the close ties between terrorist group and Tehran. The Iranian envoy was lightly injured in Tuesday’s pager blast.
The New York Times reported:
Although Hezbollah members have used pagers for years, the practice became more widespread after the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, warned in a speech in February that Israeli operatives could be using members’ cellphones to spy on them. He encouraged Hezbollah members to break or bury their phones.As a result, thousands of rank-and-file members of Hezbollah — and not just fighters — switched to a new system of wireless paging devices, said Amer Al Sabaileh, a regional security expert and university professor based in Amman, Jordan. He said his information was based on extensive contacts in Lebanese political and security circles.
“Iran-backed Hezbollah said on Wednesday it attacked Israeli artillery positions with rockets in the first strike at its arch-foe since pager blasts wounded thousands of its members in Lebanon,” Reuters reported.
Amid growing Hezbollah aggression, Israel held military drills to maintain ‘peak readiness’ in face of an attack along the northern border with Lebanon, the IDF assured.
“IDF troops in the Northern Command continue offensive and defensive activity. This week, two brigade-level exercises of the 179th and 769th Brigades took place,” the Israeli military said in press release Wednesday. “The exercises, which focused on readiness for terrain in the north, included simulating operations in enemy territory, evacuating wounded from the field under fire, the operations of the various headquarters, and defending the northern region.”
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