New explosions in Lebanon on Wednesday afternoon. Lebanese media reported, according to which walkie-talkies or portable radios used by Hezbollah members reportedly exploded in Beirut and various areas in the south of the country. Al-Arabiya writes that several wireless communication devices have exploded in homes, cars and motorcycles. An explosion was also recorded during the funeral of the son of Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar, which is taking place in a southern suburb of Beirut.
The National News Agency (NNA), the Lebanese state news agency, reports that the explosions also affected several solar panels, essential for the maintenance of Lebanon's energy system, in a number of homes in the south of the country.
At the moment, the provisional balance would be nine people dead and hundreds injured. By Tuesday, 12 people had been killed and thousands injured by thesimultaneous explosion of pagers in various areas of Lebanon and Syria. Both operations would have been carried out by Israel which is not commenting at the moment. According to CNN, Israel had warned the US of an operation in Lebanon on Tuesday but had not provided details.
Walkie-Talkies Bought Along with Pagers
Images on social media and Lebanese media of today's explosions in different parts of Lebanon show several Icom brand VHF radio devices (Japanese company), model IC-V82, damaged or half destroyed. According to Lebanese media, citing security sources, the walkie talkies exploded today were part of the same load as pagers supplied to Hezbollah exploded yesterday.
The news website Axios, citing two sources familiar with the matter, claims Israel blew up thousands of Hezbollah members' radios that "had been pre-equipped with booby traps from Israeli intelligence and then delivered to Hezbollah as part of the group's “emergency communications system,” which “was supposed to be used during a war with Israel,” according to the same sources.
Hezbollah promises: “There will be bloody revenge”
“These attacks will certainly be punished in a unique way. There will be a bloody and unique revenge,” said Hashem Safieddine, head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council, The Times of Israel reported. A cousin and close associate of the terror group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, Safieddine added: “I will not talk about it for a long time because tomorrow the leader of Hezbollah will speak and everything will be revealed. And we will find ourselves in a new situation and a new confrontation with this enemy.” “The enemy must know that we are not defeated, that we will not give in, that we will not retreat and that we will not be influenced by what this enemy is doing.”
“I think it is very important that there is effective control of civilian objects, not turning them into weapons, this should be a rule that governments should be able to implement,” he said. Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres at a briefing at United Nations headquarters in New York.
Israeli raids in Lebanon launch rockets into Galilee
Chaos and anger among the crowd on the streets of Lebanon following the hundreds of explosions of wireless devices: citizens attacked a Unifil car in Tyre, south of Beirut. Channel 12 reports, publishing images of the protests.
The Lebanese Ministry of Information reported earlier that two Israeli air raids in southern Lebanonor near the demarcation line between the two countries. The airstrike, which was simultaneous with the explosions of walkie-talkies by Hezbollah members, took place in the localities of Blida and Kfar Kila.
A flurry of rockets were launched from Lebanon towards the town of Kiryat Shmona, in northern Galilee. There were no reports of injuries. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it targeted an Israeli military base.
