Thousands of pagers explode in Lebanon killing twelve people and injuring thousands
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Wednesday, September 18, 2024
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On Tuesday, a series of coordinated pager explosions, reportedly targeting Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group, occurred in southern Beirut and the Bekaa Valley, in Lebanon, resulting in 12 deaths and 2,800 injuries. The cause of the explosions was still under investigation; early evidence suggested they were triggered by explosives planted in pagers. The following day, walkie-talkies, laptops, and radios also exploded, killing 20 people and injuring 450.
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The pagers, manufactured by a Taiwanese company called Gold Apollo, were allegedly modified to conceal explosives. On Wednesday, Gold Apollo released a statement saying the AR-924 pagers were manufactured by BAC Consulting KFT, a company based in the capital of Hungary.
Mary Ellen O’Connell, a Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, United States condemned the attacks saying "Weaponising an object used by civilians is strictly prohibited", while the UN called for an investigation.
The incidents come amid heightened tensions between Israel and Hezbollah following the Israel-Hamas War which had began in 2023.
Sources
[edit]- JOHNSON LAI and BASSEM MROUE. "Lebanon is rocked again by exploding devices as Israel declares a ‘new phase’ of war" — APNews, September 19, 2024
- "Hezbollah blames Israel after pager blasts kill 9, wound 2,750 in Lebanon" — Aljazeera, September 18, 2024
- Ramishah Maruf. "We still don’t know how the Lebanon pager attack happened. Here’s what we do know about our own electronic devices" — CNN, September 18, 2024
- "What we know about the deadly pager blasts in Lebanon" — Reuters, September 18, 2024