Femi Ashekun/
Handheld walkie-talkies used by Hizbollah were detonated across Lebanon today, the militant group said, killing at least three people and injuring more than 100 a day after thousands of pagers exploded in the country.
Lebanese state news agency, NNA, said at least three people were killed by exploding devices in the town of Sohmor in the Bekaa Valley. More than 100 people were injured, the health ministry said.
The number that is likely to rise.
Hizbollah has blamed Israel for yesterday’s attack, in which thousands of pagers carried by the militant group’s members detonated across Lebanon, killing 12 people including two children and injuring almost 2,800. Hizbollah has vowed revenge, thouhgh, Israel has not commented on the blasts.
At least one explosion today took place near a funeral in Beirut’s southern suburbs, organised by Hizbollah for several of the people killed yesterday. There were reports today of other electronic devices exploding in Lebanon, including rooftop solar energy panels, according to NNA.
Almost 300 of those wounded in yesterday’s blasts remained in a critical condition.
Hizbollah and Israel have been engaged in cross-border fire since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, prompting fears of a wider war. Almost 24 hours after the pager explosions, Hizbollah said it had launched rockets at Israeli artillery positions across the border, raising the prospect of a wider regional conflagration.
Other explosions took place, including from the handheld radios, today in Beirut, Tyre, Baalbek and the Bekaa Valley, as well as in scattered villages and towns in the south, according to NNA. The state news agency also said there was heavy surveillance drone traffic over the country’s south. These are all areas with a heavy Hizbollah presence.
Gruesome images circulated on social media for the second day running, showing fire-damaged cars and motorbikes, apartment buildings ablaze and bloodied people being rushed to hospitals in ambulances.
At the funeral in Beirut’s southern suburb of Ghobeiry, thousands of mourners had gathered for the funeral of a child, two Hizbollah members and a health worker killed in yesterday’s blasts.
The funeral was interrupted by a loud boom that echoed over the procession, sending mourners stampeding away in fear.
A Lebanese soldier stationed near the funeral, where weeping family members held up images of their slain relatives, said that “two devices had exploded”.
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