One day after Israel appeared to send Hezbollah a deadly message by allegedly blowing up pagers belonging to members of the Lebanon-based terrorist group, another wave of explosions struck communications devices belonging to Hezbollah members.
Thousands of walkie talkies belonging to Hezbollah members were blown up Wednesday in multiple sites in Lebanon, according to Axios, which reported that Israel was responsible for the second day of sophisticated attacks on Hezbollah.
The attacks left at least 14 people dead and 450 people wounded, according to The New York Times.
A #Hezbollah walkie talkie explodes at a funeral today in #Lebanon after yesterday’s exploding Hezbollah pagers. pic.twitter.com/b8TIfUUBKq
— Jason Brodsky (@JasonMBrodsky) September 18, 2024
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Tuesday’s pager attacks left almost 3,000 people hurt and nine dead, according to Reuters.
At least one radio attack took place at a funeral for a victim of the pager attacks.
The radios targeted Wednesday were bought by Hezbollah five months ago, which would be around the same time as the pagers targeted Tuesday, Reuters quoted a security source it did not name as saying.
Security sources have said Israel put explosives inside the pagers. Israel has not commented on the attacks.
One Hezbollah official has said the explosions represent the “biggest security breach” in Hezbollah’s history.
Hezbollah has relied on low-tech communications devices to avoid Israeli efforts to spy on its members through their cell phones.
According to NBC, fires were started “inside homes, cars and shops” by the radio blasts.
Explosions were also reported in other Hezbollah members’ devices such as solar energy systems and fingerprint reading devices, according to the Times of Israel.
Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, said Israel was “at the outset of a new period in this war.”
Gallant said the “center of gravity” of Israel’s military focus is “moving north,” as “forces, resources, and energy” turn to Hezbollah, which has been bombarding northern Israel for months, according to The New York Times.
A report from CNN said that American officials were notified Tuesday before the pager explosions that Israel was planning to conduct an unspecified operation in Lebanon.
The report on the blasts by Axios said Israel is trying to put pressure on the terrorist group’s leaders.
“The goal was to convince Hezbollah that it is in its interest to disconnect itself from Hamas and cut a separate deal for ending the fighting with Israel regardless of a ceasefire in Gaza,” what Axios said was a security source was quoted as saying.
Axios said its sources also said that the second wave of explosions was conducted because Hezbollah was likely to learn about the breach in its radios when it investigated the pager explosions.
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