Lebanon|So far, there have been no reports of casualties. The cause of the pager explosions is unclear.
Over a thousand one person has been wounded in Lebanon in pager explosions on Tuesday, security sources who commented anonymously told the news agency Reuters.
Among other things, the Israeli media Haaretz and Pan-Arabic Al-Jazeera reported earlier that at least dozens of members of the Lebanese-based Shiite Islamist extremist organization Hezbollah around Lebanon have been injured after the paging devices they were carrying exploded.
Lebanese Minister of Health Firass Abiad said according to the news agency AFP that hundreds of people around Lebanon have been injured. Additionally, a source close to Hezbollah told AFP that the explosions apparently targeted members of the organization.
Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon was also wounded in the pager explosion Mojtaba Amanisays Iran’s Mehr news agency, according to Reuters.
The cause of the explosions is currently unknown. The violence between Israel and Hezbollah has escalated in recent months, and Israel has reportedly shifted the focus of its armed forces towards Lebanon-based Hezbollah. Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes on both sides of the border between Lebanon and Israel.
The official, who commented on the explosions to Al-Jazeera on the condition of anonymity, said that the explosions were the “biggest security breach” that the organization has faced during the almost year-long conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.
Al Jazeera A journalist based in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon Zeina Khodr has said that it appears the devices were hacked and detonated in a “coordinated attack”.
“This is a major security breach – Hezbollah’s communications equipment has been compromised. We have seen pictures from Lebanon where men are lying on the ground wounded and bleeding. We have seen reports of hospitals asking for blood [haavoittuneille annettavaksi]”, Khodr commented.
The Israeli armed forces have not commented on the explosions.
According to Khodri, the paging devices exploded almost simultaneously in the southern and eastern parts of Lebanon and in the suburbs of Beirut.
Tuesday no fatalities have been reported. Several pictures and videos of wounded people have spread on social media.
According to Al-Jazeera, Hezbollah members have been using pagers for mutual communication, as the use of smartphones would be a security risk.
Reuters says, based on its security sources, that the exploded paging devices are the “newest models” used by Hezbollah, which have been acquired for use by the extremist organization in the past months.
Correction 17.9. 5:45 p.m.: Contrary to what was erroneously stated in the caption of the story earlier, the photo is from the city of Sidon, not Beirut.
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