Cosette Molijn & Bel Trew
The Independent / September 20, 2024
Tensions rise after two days of detonations targeting Hezbollah members’ pagers.
Hezbollah has accused Israel of crossing “all red lines” with its deadly detonation of walkie-talkies and pagers, as Israeli forces launched a fresh wave of strikes across Lebanon.
Sonic booms from low-flying Israeli jets shook the buildings in Beirut during a televised speech by the militant group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah in which he warned this week’s unprecedented action “could be called a declaration of war”.
Israel has yet to confirm or deny it was behind the remote explosions which killed at least 37 people, including two children. More than 3,000 people were also wounded, according to the Lebanese health ministry, whose top medics told The Independent that they were struggling to treat such a huge influx of critical injuries.
The events have pushed an already simmering region to the brink of full-scale war, with concerns the attack might be a precursor to an Israeli ground incursion into Lebanon.
“In this operation, the enemy violated all laws and red lines,” Nasrallah said, from an unknown location. “This type of killing, targeting and crime may be unprecedented in the world,” he added.
He said that thousands of pagers used by Iran-backed Hezbollah had been targeted simultaneously, with some of the explosions happening in hospitals, pharmacies, markets, shops and streets busy with civilians, women and children.
The threat of an all-out war between the Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel had spiked in the weeks before this unprecedented attack, after nearly a year of clashes sparked by the Israeli war against another Tehran ally, Hamas, in Gaza.
Nasrallah admitted the attacks “dealt a painful and severe blow” but would not deter Lebanon’s armed factions who “will not stop before an end to the aggression on Gaza”.
“What happened … will only increase our strength, determination and presence,” he added, warning his forces will strike back “from where [Israel] does not expect”.
It echoed statements made by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards commander Hossein Salami who, according to Iranian state media, told Nasrallah on Thursday that Israel will face “a crushing response from the axis of resistance”. Iran’s envoy to Beirut was injured in the pager attack.
Starting on Tuesday, Lebanon was shaken by explosions as hundreds – if not thousands – of pager communication devices spontaneously exploded, injuring thousands of people and killing many, including civilians. A day later, hundreds of walkie-talkies mostly used by Hezbollah members also suddenly detonated. According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, the combined attacks killed at least 37 people, the youngest an eight-year-old girl.
The attacks sparked a slew of criticism, with Lebanese prime minister Najib Mikati calling on the United Nations Security Council to take a firm stand to stop Israel’s “aggression” and “technological war”.
The UN special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, appealed for calm, warning the blasts were an “extremely concerning escalation in what is an already unacceptably volatile context”.
It echoed a statement by the European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell who called on European countries in particular to help “avert an all-out war”.
Israel began moving more troops to its border with Lebanon on Wednesday as a precautionary measure, Israeli officials said. Army chief Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said plans have been drawn up for additional action against Hezbollah, although media reported the government has not yet decided whether to launch a major offensive in Lebanon.
Hezbollah fired a new barrage into northern Israel on Thursday. Lebanon’s health minister, Firas al-Abiad, told The Independent that the country’s hospitals had prepared for mass casualty events because of the conflict but could not possibly have predicted so many similar critical wounds at the same time. Since 2020, Lebanon has been in the grip of one of the world’s worst economic collapses. impacting its ability to get medical supplies.
Dr Jihad Saade, director of Lebanon’s largest governmental facility, the Rafic Hariri University Hospital in Beirut, said most of the casualties were to the face, hands and eyes.
“We had back-to-back surgeries in four operation rooms all of them functioning at the same time through the night,” he told The Independent. “We were prepared for, for example, shelling but not mass casualties all to the same specific area of the body”.
He said doctors were not sure how many of their patients will ever be able to see again and they are worried that now the situation will escalate.
“The number and severity of injuries, especially as some will lose their vision, will mean this will not pass lightly,” he warned.
At the American University of Beirut, family members anxiously waited for news of their loved ones. A 21-year-old man said he was waiting for his brother-in-law who sustained injuries to his hands and eyes during the first wave of explosions on Tuesday. “Because of Israel, there are civilians in the hospitals now. We don’t know what will happen,” he added.
Saleh Zeineldine, the hospital’s chief medical officer said the attacks posed a “huge” challenge.
“Our capacity was stretched too thin. We received close to 200 patients yesterday,” he told The Independent. “We have 12 operating rooms that are working constantly. We cancelled all elective procedures and cases for today and tomorrow to keep up with the injuries.”
In the southern neighbourhood of Chiya, right beside the Hezbollah stronghold in Dahieh, witnesses to Wednesday’s explosions in handheld radios said people were now afraid to use any devices.
“I was standing near a hospital, then all of a sudden I heard people scream and I saw some men lying on the ground,” said Bashar al-Hassan, a Syrian employee of a bakery in the area. “I was very afraid, also for my own phone and other devices. Now it’s too risky to be in those areas.”
The owner of the store, Simone Aboud, questioned the point of the conflict. “Gaza is destroyed, just like the south in Lebanon. Thousands of their [Hezbollah] people are wounded. They’ve lost the war.”
Cosette Molijn in Beirut
Bel Trew – international correspondent
