Lebanon|Lebanon has blamed Israel for the communication device explosions. On Friday, Lebanon’s foreign minister demanded that the UN Security Council condemn the attacks and their perpetrators.
of Lebanon of the foreign minister Abdallah Bou Habib says no one in this world is safe after this week’s attacks on electronic devices, says al-Jazeera. He commented on the explosions to the meeting of the UN Security Council.
He called the explosions of the devices a terrorist attack and an unprecedented method of warfare in all its brutality and horror.
Lebanon has blamed Israel for the explosions. According to Bou Habib, Israel has violated the basic principles of international humanitarian law with its attacks.
The Foreign Minister called on the Council to condemn this week’s attacks and their perpetrators, and to force it to stop such attacks. If this is not done, it puts, among other things, the credibility of the entire Security Council and international law at stake.
“Accepting what happened means opening Pandora’s box,” he said, according to al-Jazeera.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk also said on Friday at the Security Council meeting that international humanitarian law prohibits the acquisition of seemingly harmless portable objects.
“It is a war crime to commit violence aimed at sowing terror among civilians,” he added, repeating his call for an independent and transparent investigation.
Türk said he was shocked by the scale and impact of the attacks.
“These attacks represent a new evolution in warfare, where communication tools become weapons,” he added.
“This cannot be the new normal.”
Security Council has been meeting on Friday, as Algeria had requested an emergency session due to explosions of communications equipment in Lebanon this week.
At least 37 people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded on Tuesday and Wednesday in explosions targeting communications equipment used by the Iran-backed extremist group Hezbollah.
Hezbollah has blamed Israel for the explosions and vowed to avenge the attacks. As usual, Israel has neither admitted nor denied being behind the explosions, but it has generally been considered the perpetrator of the attacks. Israel has also said this week that it will increase its military activities in the direction of Lebanon.
At the meeting, Israel’s biggest supporter, the United States, blamed of the New York Times according to Hezbollah for destabilizing the region and a similar accusation was also made by Britain. The representatives of the United States and Britain justified their accusations by saying that Hezbollah launched an attack on Israel in early October.
Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah have carried out attacks against each other since Hamas, another extremist organization supported by Iran, attacked Israel less than a year ago. After the attack at the beginning of October, Israel began to raze the Palestinian-inhabited Gaza to ruins with airstrikes and also invaded the area by land.
At the Security Council meeting, representatives of the United States and Britain also accused Iran of inciting tensions in the Middle East because the country has supplied weapons to Hezbollah.
Hezbollah confirmed the head of an important unit of the extremist organization Ibrahim Aqilin killed by Israeli fire.
The organization confirmed the matter hours after Israel said it had killed Aqil in the strike. A source close to Hezbollah had also previously said that Aqil had been killed in an Israeli strike.
Israel said Friday’s strike on Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, killed a dozen other Hezbollah commanders.
According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, at least 14 people were killed and more than 60 wounded in the Israeli attack on Friday. The ministry believes that more bodies will be found.
Reporters from the news agency AFP who were on the scene reported that the explosion had left a huge crater. New York Times describes two high-rise apartment buildings in southern Beirut collapsing in seconds.
Al Jazeera according to the report, the attack hit the area during rush hour, when people were leaving work and children were returning home from school.
Rescue workers have continued to search among the ruins for hours after the attacks.
“I have been waiting for hours to hear something about my missing aunt, her children, her husband and other relatives”, Samar Deeb said visibly tired, according to the New York Times.
“I hope they survive,” he said on his behalf Batoul Ayoub”, another relative.
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