Exploding pagers kill Hezbollah members and others, leave thousands wounded, officials say; militant group blames Israel
Beirut, Lebanon — Hundreds of handheld pagers exploded near simultaneously in parts of Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday, killing at least 12 people — including members of the militant group Hezbollah and two children — and wounding several thousand, according to Lebanon's public health minister. Hezbollah and the Lebanese government blamed Israel for what appeared to be a sophisticated, remote attack.
A U.S. official told The Associated Press that Israel had briefed the U.S. on the operation — in which small amounts of an explosive inside the pagers were detonated — after it was concluded. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the information publicly.
The Israeli military and government have declined to comment.
Among those wounded was Iran's ambassador to Lebanon. The mysterious incident came amid rising tensions between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, which have exchanged fire across the Israel-Lebanon border since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that sparked the war in Gaza.
The pagers that blew up had apparently been acquired by Hezbollah after the group's leader ordered members in February to stop using cell phones, warning they could be tracked by Israeli intelligence. A Hezbollah official told the AP that the pagers were a new brand, but declined to say how long they had been in use.
At about 3:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday, pagers started heating up and then exploding in the pockets and hands of those carrying them — particularly in a southern Beirut suburb and the Beqaa region of eastern Lebanon, where Hezbollah has a strong presence, and in Damascus, where several Hezbollah members were wounded, Lebanese security officials and a Hezbollah official said. The Hezbollah official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the news media.
The AP reached out to the Israeli military, which declined to comment. The explosions came hours after Israel's internal security agency said it had foiled an attempt by Hezbollah to kill a former senior Israeli security official using a planted explosive device that could be remotely detonated.
Experts said the pager explosions showed signs of being a long-planned operation – though the means were not immediately known. Investigators had no immediate word on how the pagers were detonated or if explosives had somehow been sneaked into each pager.
Whatever the means, it targeted an extraordinary breadth of people with hundreds of small explosions — all at once, wherever the pager carrier happened to be — that left some maimed.
The U.S. said Tuesday it was not aware in advance and had no involvement in the mass explosions.
"I can tell you that the U.S. was not involved in it, the U.S. was not aware of this incident in advance and, at this point, we're gathering information," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
One video circulating online showed a man picking through produce at a grocery store when the bag he's carrying at his hip explodes, sending him sprawling to the ground and bystanders running. AP photographers at area hospitals said the emergency rooms were overloaded with patients. Some had missing hands or chunks blown out of their legs near the pocket area.
Lebanon's health minister, Firas Abiad, said Wednesday that at least 12 people were killed, including an 12-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy and that 2,750 others were wounded — 200 of them critically — by the explosions. Most had injuries in the face, hand or around the abdomen.
Hezbollah said in a statement that two of its members were among those killed. The Hezbollah official who spoke anonymously identified one of the dead as Ali Ammar, the son of one of the group's members in the Lebanese parliament.
"We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression that also targeted civilians," Hezbollah said, adding that Israel will "for sure get its just punishment."
Iranian state-run IRNA news agency said that the country's ambassador, Mojtaba Amani, was superficially wounded by an exploding pager and was being treated at a hospital.
Previously, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had warned the group's members not to carry cellphones, saying that they could be used by Israel to track their movements and to carry out targeted strikes.
The images seen Tuesday showed signs of detonation, said Alex Plitsas, a weapons expert at the Atlantic Council. "A lithium ion battery fire is one thing, but I've never seen one explode like that. It looks like a small explosive charge," Plitsas said.
That raises the possibility Israel was aware of a shipment of pagers heading to Hezbollah and managed to modify the pagers before delivery, he said.
Another possibility is an electronic pulse "that was sent from afar and burnt the devices and caused their explosion," said Yehoshua Kalisky, a scientist and senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, a Tel Aviv think tank. "It is not some random action; it was deliberate and known."
Israel has a long history of carrying out deadly operations behind enemy lines.
In January, Saleh Arouri, a senior Hamas official, was killed in an airstrike on a Beirut apartment building blamed on Israel. In July, Israel assassinated Hezbollah's top commander in another airstrike. Hours later, Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas' political leader, died in a mysterious explosion in Iran, also blamed on Israel.
Israel has killed Hamas militants in the past with booby-trapped cellphones and it's widely believed to have been behind the Stuxnet computer virus attack on Iran's nuclear program in 2010.
Concern has mounted in recent weeks that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will order a full-scale military operation in southern Lebanon, despite warnings from the U.S. and other allies that such an offensive could spiral quickly into a much wider regional conflict, possibly prompting further attacks by Iran's proxy groups on U.S. forces in the region.
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon, deplored the attack and warned that it marks "an extremely concerning escalation in what is an already unacceptably volatile context."
Tuesday's explosions came at a time of heightened tensions between Lebanon and Israel. Hezbollah and Israeli forces have been clashing near-daily for more than 11 months against the backdrop of war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, a Hezbollah ally that is also backed by Iran.
The clashes have killed hundreds in Lebanon and dozens in Israel and displaced tens of thousands on both sides of the border. On Tuesday, Israel said that halting Hezbollah's attacks in the north to allow residents to return to their homes is now an official war goal.
On Tuesday, Hamas issued a statement condemning the pager explosions. "We appreciate the struggle and sacrifices of our brothers in Hezbollah, and their insistence on continuing to support and back our Palestinian people in Gaza, and we affirm our full solidarity with the Lebanese people and our brothers in Hezbollah," the statement from Hamas said.
Hezbollah has relied increasingly on low-tech communications methods in a bid to circumvent Israeli electronic surveillance amid the killing of the group's senior members, including top commander Fuad Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut in July.
According to a Reuters report in June, Hezbollah commanders have banned cellphones in some areas and ordered members to rely instead on pagers and in-person communications.