JERUSALEM: Hezbollah and the Lebanese government were quick to blame Israel for the nearly simultaneous detonation of hundreds of pagers used by the militant group’s members in an attack Tuesday that killed at least nine people and wounded nearly 3,000 others, according to officials.
Many of those hit were members of militant group Hezbollah, but it wasn’t immediately clear if others also carried the pagers. Among those killed were the son of a prominent Hezbollah politician and an 8-year-old girl, according to Lebanon’s health minister.
The attack 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. Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon was among those injured by the pager explosions.
Israel rarely takes responsibility for such attacks, and its military declined to comment Tuesday. However, the country has a long history of carrying out sophisticated remote operations, ranging from intricate cyberattacks to remote-controlled machine guns targeting leaders in drive-by shootings, suicide drone attacks, and the detonation of explosions in secretive underground Iranian nuclear facilities.
Here is a look at previous operations that have been attributed to Israel:
July 2024
Two major militant leaders in Beirut and Tehran were killed in deadly strikes within hours of each other. Hamas said Israel was behind the assassination of its supreme leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Iran’s capital. Although Israel didn’t acknowledge playing a role in that attack, it did claim responsibility for a deadly strike hours earlier on Fouad Shukur, a top Hezbollah commander in Beirut.
July 2024
Israel targeted Hamas’ shadowy military commander, Mohammed Deif, in a massive strike in the crowded southern Gaza Strip. The strike killed at least 90 people, including children, according to local health officials. The Israeli military said in August that Deif was killed in the attack, though Hamas previously claimed he survived.
April 2024
Two Iranian generals were killed in what Iran said was an Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Syria. The deaths led Iran to launch an unprecedented attack on Israel that involved about 300 missiles and drones, most of which were intercepted.
January 2024
An Israeli drone strike in Beirut killed Saleh Arouri, a top Hamas official in exile, as Israeli troops fight the militant group in Gaza.
December 2023
Seyed Razi Mousavi, a longtime adviser of the Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in Syria, was killed in a drone attack outside of Damascus. Iran blamed Israel.
2021
An underground nuclear facility in central Iran was hit with explosions and a devastating cyberattack that caused rolling blackouts. Iran accused Israel of carrying out the attack as well as several others against Iranian nuclear facilities using explosive drones in the ensuing years.
2020
In one of the most prominent assassinations targeting Iran’s nuclear program, a top Iranian military nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was killed by a remote-controlled machine gun while traveling in a car outside Tehran. Iran blamed Israel.
2019
An Israeli airstrike hit the home of Bahaa Abu el-Atta, a senior Islamic Jihad commander in the Gaza Strip, killing him and his wife.
2012
Ahmad Jabari, head of Hamas’ armed wing, was killed when an airstrike targets his car. His death sparked an eight-day war between Hamas and Israel.
2010
The Stuxnet computer virus, discovered in 2010, disrupted and destroyed Iranian nuclear centrifuges. It was widely believed to be a joint US-Israeli creation.
2010
Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh, a top Hamas operative, was killed in a Dubai hotel room in an operation attributed to the Mossad spy agency but never acknowledged by Israel. Many of the 26 supposed assassins were caught on camera disguised as tourists.
2008
Imad Mughniyeh, Hezbollah’s military chief, was killed when a bomb planted in his car exploded in Damascus. Mughniyeh was accused of engineering suicide bombings during Lebanon’s civil war and of planning the 1985 hijacking of a TWA airliner in which a US Navy diver was killed. Hezbollah blamed his killing on Israel. His son Jihad Mughniyeh was killed in an Israeli strike in 2015.
2004
Hamas’ spiritual leader, Ahmed Yassin, was killed in an Israeli helicopter strike while being pushed in his wheelchair. Yassin, who was paralyzed in a childhood accident, was among the founders of Hamas in 1987. His successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, was killed in an Israeli airstrike less than a month later.
2002
Hamas’s second-highest military leader, Salah Shehadeh, was killed by a one-ton bomb dropped on an apartment building in Gaza City.
1997
Mossad agents tried to kill the head of Hamas at the time, Khaled Mashaal, in Amman, Jordan. Two agents entered Jordan using fake Canadian passports and poison Mashaal by placing a device near his ear. They were captured shortly afterward and Jordan’s king threatened to void a still-fresh peace accord if Mashaal died. Israel ultimately dispatched an antidote, and the Israeli agents were returned home. Mashaal remains a senior figure in Hamas.
1996
Yahya Ayyash, nicknamed the “engineer” for his mastery in building bombs for Hamas, was killed by answering a rigged phone in Gaza. His assassination triggered a series of deadly bus bombings in Israel.
1995
Islamic Jihad founder Fathi Shikaki was shot in the head in Malta in an assassination widely believed to have been carried out by Israel.
1988
Palestine Liberation Organization military chief Khalil Al-Wazir was killed in Tunisia. Better known as Abu Jihad, he had been PLO chief Yasser Arafat’s deputy. In 2012, military censors allowed an Israeli paper to reveal details of the Israeli raid for the first time.
1973
Israeli commandos shot a number of PLO leaders in their apartments in Beirut, in a nighttime raid led by Ehud Barak, who later became Israel’s top army commander and prime minister. The operation was part of a string of Israeli assassinations of Palestinian leaders that were carried out in retaliation for the killings of 11 Israeli coaches and athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Israel has a long history of pulling off complex attacks like the exploding pagers
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Israel has a long history of pulling off complex attacks like the exploding pagers
- Israel rarely takes responsibility for such attacks, and its military declined to comment Tuesday
Hezbollah says 20 members dead, hours after walkie-talkie blasts
- Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah is due to give his first televised speech since the attacks on Thursday afternoon
The group sent separate death notices for each member from Wednesday evening to Thursday morning, saying they had been killed “on the road to Jerusalem” — the phrase used by Hezbollah to refer to fighters killed by Israel.
“The 20 Hezbollah members were killed by walkie-talkie explosions” across Lebanon on Wednesday, the source told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Earlier Wednesday, the health ministry said the second wave of explosions of electronic devices in Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon killed 20 people and left more than 450 people wounded.
Wednesday’s blasts came a day after the simultaneous detonation of pagers used by Hezbollah killed 12 people, including two children, and wounded up to 2,800 others across Lebanon, in an unprecedented attack blamed on Israel.
Israel did not comment on the incidents.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah is due to give his first televised speech since the attacks on Thursday afternoon.
Israeli security services arrest Israeli man over alleged Iranian-backed assassination plot
- Man attends at least two meetings in Iran to discuss the possibility of assassinating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
JERUSALEM: Israeli security services said on Thursday they had arrested an Israeli citizen on suspicion of involvement in an Iranian-backed assassination plot targeting prominent people including the prime minister.
It said the person was a businessman with connections in Turkiye who had attended at least two meetings in Iran to discuss the possibility of assassinating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant or the head of the Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency.
The arrest took place last month, according to a joint statement by Shin Bet and the Israeli police that highlighted the intelligence war running alongside the escalating conflict on Israel’s border with southern Lebanon.
Last week, Shin Bet uncovered what it said was a plot by Lebanese militant group Hezbollah to assassinate a former senior defense official, who was subsequently identified as the former army Chief of Staff and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon.
The announcement of the arrest came a day after Hezbollah was hit for a second day running by a sophisticated
attack
that detonated communications equipment remotely, killing at least 20 people and wounding more than 450.
Israel has not commented directly on the attack but multiple security sources have said it was undertaken by Israel’s spy agency Mossad.
Israeli strikes hit multiple targets in Lebanon
- Hezbollah fired around 20 projectiles into Israel, most of which were intercepted by air defense systems without causing any injuries
- Israeli media reported that a number of Israeli civilians had been wounded by anti-tank missile fire from Lebanon
JERUSALEM: Israeli jets and artillery hit multiple targets in southern Lebanon overnight, Israel’s military said on Thursday, amid spiralling tensions following the mass attack on Hezbollah communications devices this week.
The military said air strikes hit Hezbollah targets in Chihine, Tayibe, Blida, Meiss El Jabal, Aitaroun and Kfarkela in southern Lebanon, as well as a Hezbollah weapons storage facility in the area of Khiam.
Israeli media reported that a number of Israeli civilians had been wounded by anti-tank missile fire from Lebanon but there was no official confirmation.
The latest Israeli strikes follow a period of sharply spiralling concern over an escalation of the conflict on the border with southern Lebanon, where Israeli forces have been exchanging fire with Iranian-backed Hezbollah for months.
On Wednesday, Hezbollah fired around 20 projectiles into Israel, most of which were intercepted by air defense systems without causing any injuries, the military said.
Around 10 missiles were fired at the Mount Hermon area of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, where Israel has key surveillance, espionage and air defense installations.
This week dozens of people were killed and thousands wounded by a sophisticated attack targeting communications devices used by operatives of Hezbollah. Israel has not commented directly on the attacks, which multiple security sources have said was carried out by its spy agency Mossad.
Shifting focus
On Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the war that Israel has been waging in Gaza since last October, after Hamas-led gunmen stormed communities in southern Israel, was moving into a new phase, with the focus now shifting to the northern border.
He said more military units and resources were being sent to the border. According to Israeli officials, the forces being deployed to the border include the 98th Division, an elite formation including commando and paratroop elements that has been fighting in Gaza.
Hezbollah launched missile barrages on Israel on the day after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and since then there has been a constant exchange of fire that neither side has allowed to escalate into a full-scale war.
However, tens of thousands have been evacuated on both sides of the border, and there has been mounting pressure in Israel for the government to get the evacuees back home.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Wednesday to return the evacuated Israelis “securely to their homes.”
20 killed, 450 injured in second wave of blasts in Lebanon
- Walkie-talkies, solar equipment targeted day after pagers blast, report says
- New blasts hit a country thrown into confusion, anger after Tuesday’s bombings
BEIRUT: Explosions in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon were apparently a second wave of detonations of electronic devices, state media said on Wednesday.
The report said walkie-talkies and even solar equipment were targeted a day after hundreds of pagers blew up.
At least 20 people were killed and 450 were wounded, the Health Ministry said.
A Hezbollah official told the Associated Press that walkie-talkies used by the group exploded.
Lebanon’s official news agency reported that solar energy systems exploded in homes in several areas of Beirut and southern Lebanon, wounding at least one girl.
The new blasts hit a country thrown into confusion and anger after Tuesday’s pager bombings, which appeared to be a complex Israeli attack targeting Hezbollah members that caused civilian casualties, too.
At least 12 people were killed, including two children, and about 2,800 people were wounded as hundreds of pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded wherever they happened to be — in homes, cars, at grocery stores and in cafes.
Wednesday’s blasts caused fires, injuries and a state of hysteria because some of the devices were being carried by security personnel during the funeral ceremonies for the victims of the pager explosions on Tuesday.
Explosions were heard in the southern suburbs of Beirut and several areas in the south and the Bekaa Valley.
Many were injured outside hospitals where the wounded from Tuesday’s bombings were being treated. Several of the wounded were transferred to Baalbek hospitals.
Some devices exploded with their carriers in front of the American University Hospital in Beirut.
Four cars containing devices exploded in the town of Aabbassiyeh in the south, three people were injured when a device exploded in a car in Jdeidet Marjeyoun, and parked cars exploded in Nabatieh because there were wireless devices in them.
Ambulances rushed everywhere, and Hezbollah supporters went out on motorcycles searching for victims after abandoning all their communication devices.
The Lebanese Army Command asked citizens “not to gather in places witnessing security incidents to make way for the arrival of medical teams.”
According to initial information, the devices that exploded on Wednesday are Icom V82 models, bought in the deal for pagers last spring.
Panic increased when information circulated on social media about the explosion of solar panels connected to Internet devices. There were also claims that computers exploded.
A Hezbollah member in a video clip that showed a room with shrapnel damage, said: “This was because of the device’s battery. I removed it from the device and put it aside. Look what happened.”
Footage showed fires in residential apartments in the southern suburbs of Beirut and in the south, and casualties during funeral ceremonies after their devices exploded.
The Axios website reported that “Israel blew up thousands of wireless communication devices used by Hezbollah elements in a second wave.”
In the first wave of bombings, it appeared that small amounts of explosives had been hidden in the thousands of pagers delivered to Hezbollah and then remotely detonated.
The reports of further electronic devices exploding suggested even greater infiltration of boobytraps into Lebanon’s supply chain.
It also deepens concerns over the attacks in which hundreds of devices exploded in public areas, often with many bystanders, with no certainty of who was holding the rigged devices.
Relentless fighting is devastating Sudan and escalating in Darfur’s capital, UN says
- Up to 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million were driven from their homes
- Sudan plunged into conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders
UNITED NATIONS: Relentless violence has devastated Sudan and large-scale fighting has escalated in and around the only capital in Sudan’s western Darfur region not held by paramilitary forces, the United Nations top humanitarian official said Wednesday.
Acting humanitarian chief Joyce Msuya told the UN Security Council that famine has already struck Zamzam camp, about 15 kilometers from North Darfur’s embattled capital of El Fasher. She said a large-scale humanitarian operation is “a matter of life and death.”
Sudan plunged into conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital Khartoum and spread to other regions including Darfur. The UN says over 14,000 people have been killed and 33,000 injured.
Msuya urged the council to demand that the warring government and paramilitary Rapid Support Force refrain from targeting civilians, hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure, and allow unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid through all border crossings and across conflict lines.
She also called on the UN’s 193 member nations to pressure the parties “to agree to a humanitarian pause to save lives, give civilians respite and allow us to deliver assistance.”
Two decades ago, Darfur became synonymous with genocide and war crimes, particularly by the notorious Janjaweed Arab militias, against populations that identify as Central or East African. Up to 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million were driven from their homes.
That legacy appears to have returned, with the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, saying in January there are grounds to believe both sides may be committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide in Darfur.
Msuya said “the world should not abide in El Fasher the atrocities we witnessed in West Darfur.”
In June, the Security Council adopted a resolution calling for “an immediate halt to the fighting and for de-escalation in and around El Fasher.”
Regrettably, Msuya said, both sides ignored the call, and fighting escalated in the past week with “constant and heavy” shelling and bombing.
“Civilians, especially women and children, have been hit (and) civilian sites and infrastructure — including hospitals and internally displaced persons’ camps — have been hit,” she said. “Of the three main hospitals in El Fasher, only one is functioning, although only partially following an attack that caused extensive damage in August.”
In August, international experts confirmed there is famine in Zamzam camp, which houses around 500,000 displaced people.
Msuya said close to 1.7 million people in North Darfur face “acute food insecurity,” adding that 13 other localities in Sudan have been identified as at risk of famine.
In February, Doctors Without Borders reported that a child was dying every two hours in Zamzam camp, she said. The latest screening by the medical aid organization and the Ministry of Health between Sept. 1 and 5 indicates the situation is getting worse.
“About 34 percent of the children are malnourished, including 10 percent who are severely malnourished,” Msuya said.
Aid deliveries have been impeded by fighting and flooding, but Msuya said that as floodwaters subside in the coming weeks, the UN will be able to start moving food and other assistance to El Fasher and other areas at risk of famine.
The acting undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs stressed that to address “the atrocious humanitarian situation,” there are two keys: a de-escalation in fighting and a willingness by both sides to facilitate access to those in need.
“Be in no doubt: Without safe and predictable access and a steady supply of food and humanitarian supplies, we will see a dramatic spike in mortality — including children — in Zamzam and in other areas around El Fasher,” she said.
“The same goes for the situation across Sudan,” Msuya said, especially the capital Khartoum and neighboring Sennar and Jazeera states in southeast Sudan, which continue to be devastated “by relentless violence.”
