Nine people have been killed, and more than 2,800 injured in a series of pager explosions across Lebanon, in what Hezbollah has described as an ‘unprecedented security breach’, blaming Israel for the attack
The explosions, which took place at 3:30 pm local time, primarily targeted Hezbollah members and supporters.
Among the casualties was the 10-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member in the Bekaa Valley. Iran’s Ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was also injured in the incident.
Hezbollah said that the pagers exploded simultaneously in Hezbollah strongholds, including southern Lebanon and Beirut’s suburbs. In Syria, four people were also injured when a pager exploded in a vehicle in Damascus.
The explosions are suspected to have been caused by either the overheating of lithium batteries due to an electronic signal breach—similar to a cyber-attack—or explosives secretly embedded in the pagers. However, these claims have yet to be independently verified.
Hezbollah, backed by Iran and a supporter of Hamas in the ongoing conflict with Israel in Gaza, has referred to the incident as the most significant security breach it has faced. Hezbollah’s leaders, including the sons of prominent lawmakers Ali Ammar and Hassan Fadlallah, were reportedly among the victims.
Lebanon’s National News Agency labeled the event as an “enemy security incident,” with handheld pagers detonating across the country almost simultaneously.
Hezbollah had previously instructed its members to avoid using mobile phones, opting for pagers to evade potential Israeli surveillance since the Gaza war began in October 2023. This attack on Hezbollah’s communication system marks a serious escalation in the group’s ongoing conflict with Israel.
Meanwhile, Edward Joseph Snowden, an American former NSA intelligence contractor, said that if it were iPhones that were leaving the factory with explosives inside, the media would be a hell of a lot faster to cotton on to what a horrific precedent has been set today. Nothing can justify this. It’s a crime. A crime. And everyone in the world is less safe for it.
“As information comes in about the exploding beepers in Lebanon, it seems now more likely than not to be implanted explosives, not a hack. Why? Too many consistent, very serious injuries. If it were overheated batteries exploding, you’d expect many more small fires & misfires,” Snowden said in a post on X.
“What Israel has just done is, via any method, reckless. They blew up countless numbers of people who were driving (meaning cars out of control), shopping (your children are in the stroller standing behind him in the checkout line), et cetera. Indistinguishable from terrorism,” Snowden posted on X.
