On Wednesday, walkie-talkies, solar equipment, and other devices exploded at a funeral for three Hezbollah members killed the previous day by a blast from tampered pagers.
The Tuesday explosion was part of a sophisticated operation by Israel, which concealed explosive materials within a shipment of Taiwanese-made pagers ordered by Hezbollah from Gold Apollo in Taiwan. These pagers were modified before arriving in Lebanon, with explosives weighing one to two ounces implanted next to the battery and a remotely triggered switch included.
At 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, the pagers received a message that appeared to come from Hezbollah’s leadership, but it instead activated the explosives.
During the funeral on Wednesday, the walkie-talkies and other devices unexpectedly detonated, resulting in 14 deaths and over 450 injuries, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a short video statement after the latest round of explosions in Lebanon.
“I have already said we will return the residents of the north safely to their homes,” he said in the video. “And that is exactly what we will do.”
Asked about Tuesday’s pager explosions, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called it especially serious not only because of the large number of victims “but because of the indications that exist that this was triggered — I would say, in advance of the normal way to trigger these things — because there was a risk of this being discovered.”
“Obviously the logic of making all these devices explode is to do it as a preemptive strike before a major military operation,” the U.N. chief said. “So as important as the event in itself, is the indication that this event confirms that there is a serious risk of a dramatic escalation in Lebanon.”
“Everything must be done to avoid that escalation,” Guterres said.
Guterres made the comments prior to finding out about Wednesday’s explosions involving walkie-talkies.
Both Hezbollah and the Lebanese government are holding Israel responsible for the Tuesday attack.
