Death toll from gadget explosions rises in Lebanon as Israel steps up war talk

The death toll in a series of two-way radio and pager explosions in Lebanon this week has risen to 37, local authorities said, adding to the devastation caused by a wave of suspected Israeli attacks on Hezbollah militants.

A second wave of explosions on Wednesday killed 25 people and wounded more than 600, Lebanon’s health ministry said. Some of the blasts occurred at funerals for Hezbollah members who died the previous day when thousands of pagers – most of them owned by the Iranian-backed group – exploded in supermarkets, streets and homes across the country. Two children were killed in nearly simultaneous explosions on Tuesday, and some 2,300 people were injured.

The attacks have raised fears of a full-blown war between Hezbollah and Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the operations. Israel has sent more troops to its northern border with Lebanon in recent days, and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has announced a “new phase” in the country’s battle with Islamist militant groups. Two Israeli soldiers were killed in attacks in the north of the country, close to Lebanon, on Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement, without providing further details. Lebanese state media reported Israeli warplanes flying over Beirut.

While there are few signs that an invasion of Lebanon is imminent, Israeli officials have said diplomacy with Hezbollah is failing and they will be forced to act more aggressively to push the group’s fighters and weapons away from the border. “Hezbollah will pay an increasingly high price,” Gallant said in a briefing Thursday.

Israel continues to fight Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and ceasefire talks have stalled, although the intensity of the conflict is decreasing. Israel remains determined to destroy the Palestinian group and free hostages held in Gaza since the war began almost a year ago, Gallant said, but is increasingly focused on Hezbollah.

The commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, General Hossein Salami, said Israel would face a crushing response for this week’s escalation and threatened to “destroy this cruel and criminal regime,” according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.

Hezbollah is the most powerful of the Iranian-backed regional groups attacking Israel, with tens of thousands of fighters and at least as many missiles and rockets, according to Israeli intelligence estimates. Many Israelis fear that if it escalated, it could overwhelm the country’s vaunted air defense systems.

The two sides have exchanged fire since the Gaza war erupted in October, though they have largely limited their attacks to military targets, usually near the border area where thousands of people on both sides have been evacuated. Hezbollah says it is acting in solidarity with Hamas and will not stop its attacks until Israel agrees to a ceasefire in the territory.

The United States, which considers Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist organizations, has sought to calm tensions and has urged Israel not to escalate its attacks to the point of all-out war.

It is unclear to what extent this year’s explosions in Lebanon have undermined Hezbollah’s fighting capacity. The group has vowed to retaliate, and its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, struck a defiant tone in a speech on Thursday.

Israel has crossed all red lines and rules of engagement by blowing up pagers and other devices, Nasrallah said. The attacks will not stop Hezbollah from shooting at Israel until there is a ceasefire in Gaza, he said.

He described the explosions as a “huge security and humanitarian blow” to Hezbollah and said many victims suffered eye injuries. Israel was trying to kill thousands of people, he claimed.

The explosions were extremely embarrassing for Hezbollah and may have been designed to deal a psychological blow. Israeli analysts say the explosions are likely to hamper communications for the Shiite organization’s leaders and commanders as they fear more of their facilities have been sabotaged.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said his country would ask the UN Security Council, which is due to meet on Friday to discuss the situation, for a resolution aimed at stopping Israel from carrying out such attacks.

The prime minister and House of Representatives Speaker Nabih Berri, Hezbollah’s main political ally in Lebanon, received phone calls from French President Emmanuel Macron, state media reported.

Hezbollah members often used pagers and walkie-talkies—gadgets considered obsolete in most of the world—because they were considered more difficult for Israeli security services to infiltrate due to their low-tech nature. There is much speculation about how the blasts were orchestrated, with many cybersecurity experts saying the devices were likely rigged with explosive devices.

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(With assistance from Dan Williams.)