Exploding pagers injure hundreds of Hezbollah members

BEIRUT

An ambulance rushes wounded people to a hospital in Beirut on Sept. 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters.

Exploding pagers injured hundreds of Hezbollah members across Lebanon on Tuesday, a source close to the group told AFP, with another source close to the group reporting no deaths.

The second source told the incident was a result of an "Israeli breach" of its communications, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

The incident was the first of its kind since Hezbollah began trading near-daily fire with Israel in support of ally Hamas after the Palestinian militant group's Oct. 7 attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war.

"Hundreds of Hezbollah members were injured by the simultaneous explosion of their pagers" in the group's strongholds in Beirut's southern suburbs, in south Lebanon and in the eastern Bekaa Valley, the source said, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

Health Minister Firass Abiad confirmed hundreds of people had been injured in the incidents across the country.

A photographer in central Beirut saw dozens of wounded people transported to another hospital.

An AFP correspondent in eastern Lebanon said dozens of people were wounded in similar incidents in the Bekaa Valley.

In Lebanon's south, another correspondent reported dozens of ambulances rushing between the cities of Tyre and Sidon in both directions, with hospitals in both cities cordoned off.

The health ministry in a statement asked "all hospitals in... areas near the locations of the injured, to be on high alert and raise their level of preparedness", and "all health workers to urgently go to their workplaces" to assist.

The Lebanese Red Cross said it was on "high alert" in a statement shared on X, formerly Twitter.

Lebanon's official National News Agency reported "an unprecedented enemy security incident" with "hand-held pagers detonating" in several regions.

Hezbollah had asked its members to avoid using mobile phones after the Gaza war began to avoid Israeli breaches of the technology.

Hezbollah members communicate through their own telecommunications system.