At least 9 people were killed and some 2,800 injured on Tuesday, September 17 in Lebanon when beepers belonging to Hezbollah members exploded almost simultaneouslyin an action that the Islamist movement attributed to Israel.
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Among the dead were the sons of two Hezbollah deputies, a source close to Hezbollah told the AFP news agency.
A 10-year-old girl was also killed when her father’s pager exploded in the east of the country, according to her family and another source close to the powerful Iranian-backed organisation.
Among the wounded is the Iranian ambassador to Beirut, Mojtaba Amani, who is out of danger, Iranian state television reported.
In neighbouring Syria, 14 people were also injured when beepers used by Hezbollah exploded, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based organisation, said.
According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, the explosions left 2,750 people injured in addition to the nine confirmed deaths.
Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said most of the victims had wounds “on the face, on one hand, on the stomach and even on the eyes.”
Pagers are small messaging and location devices that do not require a SIM card or internet connection.
Hezbollah and Hamas accuse Israel
“The Israeli enemy is fully responsible for this criminal aggression” and “will undoubtedly receive its just punishment,” Hezbollah said in a statement.
Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, also denounced a “Zionist terrorist attack” that makes no distinction “between resistance fighters and civilians.”
A source close to Hezbollah said that “hundreds of members” of the movement “had been injured by the simultaneous explosion of their pagers” both in the southern suburbs of Beirut and in southern Lebanon and in the eastern Bekaa Valley.
An AFP journalist in the region saw numerous wounded in hospitals. Another journalist in the southern city of Sidon reported dozens of ambulances arriving at hospitals.
The Lebanese Front
The explosions occurred just hours after Israel announced that it was extending its war aims to its border with Lebanon.which has so far focused on the fight against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, triggered on 7 October 2023 by a deadly Hamas commando raid in southern Israel, the border with Lebanon has become the scene of almost daily artillery duels between the Israeli army and Hamas’s ally Hezbollah, forcing tens of thousands of civilians from both countries to flee.
Israel has announced its decision to extend the war’s objectives to the border with Lebanon to allow the return of displaced people.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that “military action” against Hezbollah is “the only way to ensure the return of the inhabitants of northern Israel to their homes,” as expressed to Amos Hochstein, an American envoy who visited Israel.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Egypt on Wednesday to discuss a new proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages, the State Department said.
The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borell, called for “pressure” on Israel and for a truce to be reached.
In the October 7 attack, Islamist commandos killed 1,205 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.
Of the 251 abducted during the Islamist incursion, 97 remain captive in Gaza, although 33 of them were declared dead by the Israeli army.
Israeli airstrikes and ground operations have devastated the enclave and killed at least 41,252 Palestinians, mostly women, teenagers and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the territory.
UN debate on occupied territories
The war in Gaza has also led to a surge in violence in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
UN member states on Tuesday discussed a Palestinian draft resolution to “bring an end without delay to Israel’s illegal presence in the Palestinian territories, within a “maximum period of twelve months.”
In July, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared the occupation “unlawful” and urged Israel to “put an end to this situation as soon as possible.”
The resolution, which is likely to be voted on Wednesday, was met with strong opposition from Israel, which criticised “the Palestinian circus at the UN”.
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Source: https://www.noticiascaracol.com/mundo/hezbola-y-hamas-acusan-a-israel-de-explosiones-de-biperes-que-dejan-9-muertos-en-libano-cb20
