Less than 24 hours after the explosions of pagers used by Hezbollah militants that left 12 dead and around 3,000 wounded in Lebanon on Tuesday, Israel has struck again. Today around 1:00 PM local time, dozens of explosions occurred and this time the vector that was used were the radio transmitters (walkie-talkies) in use by Hezbollah men. Some of the explosions occurred in the southern suburbs of Beirut, just as the funerals of Hezbollah members killed the previous day during the pager attacks were taking place. Explosions also occurred in Dahieh, Ghaziyeh and Al-Sarafand in southern Lebanon. At the time of writing, the death toll has risen to nine, while the number of injured has exceeded 400 people, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. Videos are circulating on social media showing people lying on the ground, seriously injured in the stomach and hands, or dead, in both Beirut and the Bekaa region. Images of today’s explosions show severely damaged or destroyed VHF radio devices from the Japanese brand Icom, model IC-V82. There were also explosions related to systems associated with solar panels and fingerprint recognition devices, as well as numerous electric scooters, according to local media in Beirut. In Beirut alone, 60 homes, shops, 15 vehicles and dozens of motorcycles were hit, according to the Civil Defense.
A security official told Reuters news agency that the radios that exploded were portable radios and different from the pagers that exploded on Sunday. He said they were purchased by Hezbollah five months ago, around the same time as the pagers. According to Sky News in Arabic, the explosions occurred at the same time as the funeral of Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Ammar’s son in Beirut’s Da’ahiya. Dramatic footage showed panic after an explosion at one of the funerals. Sources told the opposition-affiliated Syrian newspaper “Kol Habira” that Hezbollah’s communications networks were attacked. They said high-frequency waves were sent that blew up equipment and broadcasting stations. Meanwhile, “Al-Hadth” claimed a voice recording of a Hezbollah man said it was a lithium battery that had exploded.
The “Voice of the Capital” instead reported that the Syrian regime has informed all security forces and military units to turn off wireless devices, disconnect switchboards and use cable communication. Hezbollah terrorists prefer to use technologically simple devices, minimizing the use of advanced technology, to prevent Israeli intelligence from monitoring their movements or infiltrating their devices. After the pager explosions on Tuesday, the terrorist group began using portable radios but even this did not protect them. As we write, the Lebanese Ministry of Information reports two Israeli air strikes in southern Lebanon close to the demarcation line between the two countries. The air strike, almost simultaneously with the explosions of walkie-talkies of Hezbollah members, occurred in the localities of Blida and Kfar Kila, two strongholds of Hezbollah. Earlier today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke out for the first time since the beeping and exploding radios began in Lebanon, saying: “I said we would bring the residents of the north home safely. And that is exactly what will happen.” Finally, a thought: Blowing up pagers, forcing surviving Hezbollah militants to rely on walkie-talkies and then blowing them up, is something not even the producers of the TV series “Fauda” could have imagined.
@reproduction reserved
