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Lebanese army soldiers stand guard as an ambulance rushes wounded people to a hospital in Beirut on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. Hundreds of people were wounded when Hezbollah members' paging devices exploded simultaneously across Lebanon on September 17, in what a source close to the militant movement said was an "Israeli breach" of its communications. (Photo by ANWAR AMRO / AFP)
BEIRUT: At least nine people, including a child, were killed in a mass explosion of wireless communication devices known as pagers in different areas in Lebanon, Lebanese Health Minister Firas Al-Abiad said on Tuesday.
Some 2,800 other people were also injured, including 200 in critical condition, in an initial toll, he added at a press conference in Beirut. Lebanese media suggested that the devices exploded after an Israeli breach of the communication system.
The Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants condemned in a statement "in the strongest terms the Israeli cyber attack that led to the explosion of a large number of pager devices in several Lebanese areas, resulting in an initial toll of 9 deaths, including children, and thousands of injuries, some of them in critical condition.
The statement also highlighted that this serious and deliberate Israeli escalation comes alongside threats from Israel to widen the conflict with Lebanon significantly, as well as increasingly harsh Israeli rhetoric calling for further bloodshed, destruction, and devastation.
