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Hezbollah vows to exact revenge against Israel after explosive pager bomb attack in Lebanon and Syria which killed at least nine people and left thousands wounded

1 day ago 1

By Jamie Bullen

Published: 08:01 BST, 18 September 2024 | Updated: 09:55 BST, 18 September 2024

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Hezbollah has vowed to punish Israel following a deadly pager bomb attack which killed at least nine people and left more than 2,750 wounded across Lebanon and Syria.

Israeli spies are accused of planting explosives in the hand-held devices before co-ordinating a series of detonations on Tuesday afternoon in an apparent joint operation with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Lebanon’s prime minister Najib Mikati condemned ‘criminal Israeli aggression’ and called the attack ‘a serious violation of Lebanese sovereignty’. Hezbollah says that Israel is 'fully responsible' for the explosions, warning that the nation would be punished.

Follow MailOnline's live coverage below

Watch: Explosion captured in Lebanese supermarket

Video footage from inside a Beirut supermarket appears to show the moment Israel sent out its deadly message.

A Hezbollah attacker was seen confusedly lifting his shirt up at a supermarket after getting a message on his pager, which lit up.

He stared at it for a second before it detonated, collapsing him in an instant as supermarket workers and fellow shoppers panicked and fled.

Watch the video below:

Everything you need to know about the explosive pagers

 Photo by Balkis Press/ABACA/Shutterstock (14725926e) An undated file catalog image of an Apollo pager, similar to the ones that exploded on September 17, 2024, in various cities of Lebanon and Syria, in an unprecedented cyber-attack or long distance attack against pro Iranian Hezbollah personnel. At least nine people have been killed and thousands are injured after handheld pagers, used by Hezbollah, exploded in Lebanon on Tuesday afternoon. The health ministry says 200 of those injured are in a critical condition. Hezbollah has blamed Israel for the "sinful aggression", saying the country will get its "fair punishment". Exploding Pagers Kill Nine And Injure Thousands - Lebanon - 18 Sep 2024

The hundreds of pagers (not pictured) that exploded on Tuesday in Lebanon and Syria had apparently been acquired by the militant group Hezbollah after the group's leader ordered members in February to stop using mobile phones, warning they could be tracked by Israeli intelligence.

The pagers exploded simultaneously, killing at least nine people, including members of Hezbollah, and wounding more than 2,000, including the Iranian ambassador

A Hezbollah official told the Associated Press the pagers were a new brand, but declined to say how long they had been in use.

Taiwanese company Gold Apollo said it authorised its brand on the pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria, but they were manufactured by a company based in Budapest.

The AR-924 pagers were manufactured by BAC Consulting KFT, based in Hungary's capital, according to a statement by Gold Apollo.

It said: "According to the co-operation agreement, we authorise BAC to use our brand trademark for product sales in designated regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are solely the responsibility of BAC."

Gold Apollo chairman Hsu Ching-kuang told journalists on Wednesday that his company has had a licensing agreement with BAC for the past three years, but did not provide evidence of the contract.

The AR-924 pager, advertised as being "rugged", contains a rechargeable lithium battery, according to specifications once advertised on Gold Apollo's website before it was apparently taken down on Tuesday.

It could receive text messages of up to 100 characters.

How Israeli spies 'stashed explosives in 5,000 pagers'

by David Averre

A pager bomb attack that left roughly 2,800 Hezbollah members and civilians injured and nine dead in Lebanon and Syria yesterday was authored by Israel's Mossad spy agency and the IDF, several security sources claim.

The Lebanese group earlier this year ordered thousands of pagers to conduct communications after leader Hassan Nasrallah declared smartphones would be more susceptible to cyber attacks by Israeli forces.

Israeli military and intelligence personnel managed to access 5,000 pagers, produced in Budapest by BAC Consulting KFT, 'at the production level' and insert a small amount of high explosives months before they were imported to Lebanon, according to several security sources who spoke to Reuters.

Read more here:

Graphic: How the pager bomb attack was carried out

This graphic produced for the Daily Mail newspaper shows how the pager bomb attack was carried out in Lebanon yesterday.

Israeli security services and its military are said to have filled the hand-held ordered by Hezbollah with one or two ounces of explosive material along with a detonating switch prior to their delivery.

A Hezbollah official said the new pagers that its members were carrying had lithium batteries.

Lithium batteries, when overheated, can smoke, melt and even catch on fire.

Rechargeable lithium batteries are used in consumer products ranging from phones and laptops to electric cars. Lithium battery fires can burn up to 590C.

Hezbollah chief to give speech tomorrow

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah gives a televised address, in this screengrab taken from a handout video obtained on August 25, 2024. Al-Manar TV/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES.

Lebanon's Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah (pictured) will give a speech on Thursday, the group said in a statement on Wednesday.

Nasrallah is credited as one of the most powerful Shia figures in the Middle East who has left a lasting impact on Lebanon and its role in the Arab-Israel conflict.

Under his stewardship, Hezbollah has grown from a local armed movement to the largest political party in Lebanon’s recent history.

In 2018, Hezbollah won ore than 340,000 preferential votes, the most for any party in Lebanon since the country's independence in 1943

In October 2021, Nasrallah said Hezbollah had 100,000 fighters, making it among the most powerful non-national armed organisations worldwide.

How will attack affect the Middle East?

Ambulances are surrounded by people at the entrance of the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. Hundreds of people were wounded when Hezbollah members' paging devices exploded simultaneously across Lebanon on September 17, in what a source close to the militant movement said was an "Israeli breach" of its communications. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP) (Photo by ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images)

The incident comes at a time of heightened tensions between Lebanon and Israel.

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israeli forces have been clashing near-daily for more than 11 months against the backdrop of war between Israel and Hezbollah's ally Hamas in Gaza.

The clashes have killed hundreds in Lebanon and dozens in Israel and displaced tens of thousands on both sides of the border.

On Tuesday, Israel said that halting Hezbollah's attacks in the north to allow residents to return to their homes is now an official war goal.

Israel has killed Hamas militants in the past with booby trapped cellphones and it's widely believed to have been behind the Stuxnet computer virus attack on Iran's nuclear programme in 2010.

What has Hezbollah said after attack?

Head of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc Mohammad Raad looks on as he extends condolences to Ali Ammar (not pictured), for his son who was killed in the detonation of pagers for which Hezbollah blamed Israel, that killed at least eight people and wounded 2,750 others, including many of the militant group's fighters and Iran's envoy to Beirut, in Beirut, Lebanon September 17, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Both Hezbollah and Lebanon's government have squarely blamed Israel for the attack. Though Israel has not yet commented on the matter, allies including the United States sought to distance themselves from the attack.

Hezbollah said in a statement:

'We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression,' adding that Israel 'will certainly receive its just punishment for this sinful aggression'.

In a second statement, the terror group added

After examining all the facts, current data, and available information about the sinful attack that took place this afternoon, we hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression that targeted civilians too.

Prominent Hezbollah politician Ali Ammar spoke to the Associated Press after his son, Mahdi, was killed.

This is a new Israeli aggression against Lebanon. The resistance will retaliate in a suitable way at the suitable time.

Lebanon’s prime minister Najib Mikati condemned ‘criminal Israeli aggression’ and called the attack ‘a serious violation of Lebanese sovereignty’.

Hezbollah pager attack: What happened yesterday?

 Photo by EyePress News/Shutterstock (14725405b) (EDITORS NOTE: Image contains graphic content) A man is injured after his pager exploded in Beirut, Lebanon as at least eight people were killed and 2,800 injured on Tuesday Sept 17, 2024 in a wave of attacks targeting phone pagers held by members of the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah. Lebanese media outlets and Sky News Arabia report that Israel managed to hack the portable pagers and cause them to explode. Several injured in Lebanon in mass pager detonations, Beirut - 17 Sep 2024

Here's a quick rundown of the attacks carried out on Hezbollah terrorists yesterday:

  • More than 300 people were rushed to hospital in a critical condition after pagers used by proscribed terror group Hezbollah detonated over a period of an hour yesterday afternoon.
  • The detonators activated at around 3.30pm local time (1.45pm UK time) on Tuesday after receiving a message that purported to be from Hezbollah's top brass.
  • Widespread panic and chaotic scenes were seen across Beirut's southern suburbs, the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon, while in neighbouring Syria 14 people were injured by the blasts, according to Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
  • Victims were seen writhing in agony with hideous injuries to their faces, abdomens and even their groins in harrowing images and videos shared to social media and published on Lebanese networks.
  • Among those reportedly killed were two girls, aged eight aged eight and ten, and the son of a Lebanese MP. Iran said its ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, also sustained injuries to his face and hand.
  • Both Hezbollah and Lebanon's government have squarely blamed Israel for the attack. Though Israel has not yet commented on the matter, allies including the United States sought to distance themselves from the attack.

Israeli spies were behind pager bomb attack

Firstly, let's bring you our current top story on the MailOnline website which reports Israel was involved in the deadly pager bomb attack

by Perkin Amalaraj and Sam Greenhill

Israeli spies were behind the pager bomb attack that killed nine, including two young girls, and left more than 2,750 people wounded across Lebanon.

The New York Times reported that Hezbollah's pagers were compromised in a joint operation between Mossad, Israel's shadowy intelligence agency, and the IDF.

The security service and military are said to have filled the pagers ordered by Hezbollah with one or two ounces of explosive material along with a detonating switch prior to their delivery.

Read more here:

Good morning

 Photo by Balkis Press/ABACA/Shutterstock (14725926d) A hand shows the destroyed pager or paging device that exploded on September 17, 2024, at same time that hundreds other pagers exploded in various cities of Lebanon and Syria, in an unprecedented cyber-attack or long distance attack against pro Iranian Hezbollah personnel. At least nine people have been killed and thousands are injured after handheld pagers, used by Hezbollah, exploded in Lebanon on Tuesday afternoon. The health ministry says 200 of those injured are in a critical condition. Hezbollah has blamed Israel for the "sinful aggression", saying the country will get its "fair punishment". Exploding Pagers Kill Nine And Injure Thousands - Lebanon - 18 Sep 2024

Hello and welcome to MailOnline's live coverage of the pager bomb attack which targeted Hezbollah terrorists across Lebanon and Syria.

At least nine people were killed and 2,750 wounded, 300 critically, following a series of detonations of the hand-held devices on Tuesday afternoon.

Hezbollah immediately blamed Israel and vowed to exact revenge while the New York Times reported the pagers (pictured above) were compromised in a joint operation between Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, and the IDF.

We will bring you all the developments and reaction throughout the day as tensions between Israel and Hezbollah threaten to intensify further as both sides edge closer to war.

Key Updates

  • Graphic: How the pager bomb attack was carried out

  • Hezbollah chief to give speech tomorrow

  • What has Hezbollah said after attack?

  • Hezbollah pager attack: What happened yesterday?

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