Lebanon’s health ministry reported that at least eight people were killed and over 2,700 others were injured on Tuesday when handheld pagers exploded across the country. Among those affected were medics and Hezbollah fighters.
The explosions have been attributed to an attack by the armed group Hezbollah, which has accused Israel of being behind the detonations. An official from Hezbollah described the incident as the group’s “biggest security breach” in nearly a year of ongoing conflict with Israel. The two sides have been engaged in cross-border warfare since the escalation of the conflict in Gaza last October.
The Israeli military has yet to comment on the incident. The exact method of how the pagers were detonated remains unclear.
In response to the explosions, Hezbollah’s leader had previously advised fighters to stop using smartphones, citing concerns that Israel possessed technology capable of tracking these devices. The current incident, however, involved pagers rather than smartphones, and it is not immediately known how they were triggered.
The Lebanese health ministry has issued an urgent call for all medical personnel to report to their respective hospitals to manage the overwhelming number of casualties. The ministry has also advised healthcare workers and others who use pagers to dispose of them to prevent further incidents.
As the situation develops, the full extent of the damage and the exact cause of the pager explosions are still being investigated.
