With their pagers out of action after being blasted into tiny pieces on Tuesday, members of Hezbollah were forced to communicate via hand-held radios. Those devices also exploded Wednesday in a devastating one-two punch.
A security source and witness told Reuters that the walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah were detonated Wednesday afternoon in Beirut and southern Lebanon.
Among the latest explosions were multiple at the site of a funeral being held for three Hezbollah members and a child, who were killed the day before. Lebanese television station Al Jadeed News posted to X a video that it said shows the moment a radio detonated during the mourning.
Two sources told Axios that Israel was behind the second round of secret attacks and that “thousands” of two-way personal radios were detonated Wednesday. The outlet reported that the radios were booby-trapped in advance by Israeli intelligence services.
That echoes a New York Times report, citing U.S. and other officials, which said Israeli intelligence hid explosive material in a shipment of pagers that were imported to Lebanon from Taiwan.
However, Taiwan-based Gold Apollo said in a statement on its website that the AR-924 pager model used in the Tuesday attack was manufactured and sold in Hungary by a firm called BAC Consulting, which licenses the Gold Apollo brand. There was no information immediately available about the brand of two-way radio used in the Wednesday attack.
During yesterday’s wave of detonations, pagers used by Hezbollah exploded over the course of an hour, many while their owners were in civilian areas. At least 12 people, including two children, were killed, hundreds more remain in critical condition, and at least 2,800 were wounded.
No immediate casualties were available in relation to Wednesday’s attack but explosions were also reportedly heard in civilian areas including homes.
Israeli and Hezbollah officials have warned one another in recent weeks that they could escalate fighting. Israel began moving additional troops near the Lebanese border on Wednesday as a precaution, an official told the Associated Press. The AP also said that U.S. officials were briefed on Israel’s covert attack Tuesday after it was launched.
