BEIRUT, Lebanon — A source close to Lebanon’s Hezbollah cell told French news agency AFP that a walkie-talkie used by a Hezbollah member exploded at its headquarters in Beirut on Wednesday. State media reported similar pager or “device” explosions in eastern and southern Lebanon. The Lebanese Health Ministry said the explosion killed 20 people and injured 450.
The explosion killed thousands of people. A pager carried by a Hezbollah member explodes At roughly the same time, At least 12 people killedTwo men, including two children, were killed, according to Lebanon’s health minister. The attack comes after weeks of heightened tensions between Israel and Lebanon. Iran-backed HezbollahGunfire has been ongoing across Israel’s northern border since the October 7 Hamas attack. The war in Gaza.
At least one explosion occurred on Wednesday near where Hezbollah was holding a funeral for people killed in a pager explosion the previous day. A Reuters reporter visiting a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs said he saw people in a home with Hezbollah members quickly remove batteries from walkie-talkies that had not exploded and dispose of the devices.
Reuters
Lebanon’s state news agency also reported explosions of pagers and communications devices in Hezbollah strongholds in the east and south, and an AFP correspondent also reported the explosions.
Israeli defence chief says war is at ‘new phase’
Israeli officials have not made any official comment on the explosion in Lebanon, but a U.S. official told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Israeli officials had briefed U.S. officials about the operation after Tuesday’s pager explosion. Lebanese officials and Hezbollah were quick to blame Israel for Tuesday’s widespread attack, and Iran-backed Hezbollah vowed to retaliate.
CBS News has found that U.S. officials received about 20 minutes of advance intelligence about Israel’s operation against Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, but were not told the specific methods Mossad would use to carry out the attack.
A U.S. military spokesman and Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States had no prior knowledge of the plan to blow up communications equipment in Lebanon and was not involved in the operation.
“The United States has no knowledge of or involvement in these incidents. We are still gathering information and facts,” Blinken said.
The United States has assessed that the Israeli action is over, and the focus now is on possible Hezbollah retaliation for the covert action, the scale of which remains to be seen in the coming days.
Addressing soldiers on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant did not mention the explosion in Lebanon but praised the work of the Israeli army and security services, calling the results of their actions “very impressive.”
After 11 months of war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, “the centre of gravity is shifting to the north by diverting resources and forces,” he said.
The IDF on Wednesday moved its 98th Division, which has been fighting in the Gaza Strip, into northern Israel, U.S. and other sources said.
“We are entering a new phase of the war,” Gallant said, adding that it will require “courage, determination and perseverance.”
Gallant and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met twice on Tuesday, according to two defense officials.
Why did pagers explode in Lebanon?
Taiwan’s Gold Apollo Co. said on Wednesday it was withdrawing its trademark. The pager that exploded on TuesdayHowever, it said the devices possessed by Hezbollah members were manufactured and sold by a Budapest, Hungary-based company called Bac Consulting KFT.
“None of this was in any of the equipment that we manufactured or exported to BAC,” Xu Qingguang, founder and CEO of Gold Apollo, told NPR on Wednesday.
CBS News asked Bac Consulting about where and how its equipment is made and sold, but did not receive a response by phone or email.
Zoltán Kovács, a spokesman for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, responded to CBS News in a text message saying the Hungarian prime minister’s office “does not know anything or have any information on this matter.”
In a social media post late on Wednesday, Kovács described Buck Consulting as “a trade intermediary with no manufacturing or operational base in Hungary,” adding that “they have one manager registered at the declared address and the equipment mentioned has never been in Hungary.”
The exact number of pagers exploded on Tuesday was unclear, but a senior Lebanese security official and another intelligence source told Reuters that Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency had planted small amounts of explosives in 5,000 pagers ordered by Hezbollah just months before the blast.
The Associated Press and The New York Times, citing anonymous U.S. officials, also reported that the pager that exploded on Tuesday contained a small amount of explosives and a switch that could be embedded in it to detonate it remotely.
The plane contained an ounce or two of explosives embedded next to a battery, The Times reported, citing a Lebanese official, that the explosives were activated after the plane received a message believed to be from Hezbollah’s leadership at 3:30 p.m. local time.
Margaret Brennan
Tucker Rials,
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Charlie D’Agata and Eleanor Watson contributed to this report.
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