On Tuesday (17 Sept) at around 3.45pm local time, pager explosions occurred simultaneously across Lebanon.
According to the British daily newspaper The Guardian, the explosions killed nine, including a 10-year-old girl.
It also wounded almost 3,000 people.
Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, also said that of the nearly 3,000 injured, more than 200 are in critical condition.
CCTV footage of the numerous pager explosions have been circulating online.
One such footage was of a man in a supermarket whose bag suddenly explodes.
The explosion leaves him screaming in pain as bystanders are left confused as to what happened.
Hospitals in Lebanon were overwhelmed by the amount of victims.
Source: @BabakTaghvaee1 on X
The LAU Medical Centre in Beirut even had to close its gates to limit the amount of people coming in, according to BBC.
One of the hospital staff said, “A lot of casualties have lost fingers, in some cases all of them.”
Armed group Hezbollah announced the deaths of eight “fighters” following the orchestrated explosions.
Its members had adopted low-tech pagers to prevent the hacking or tracking of the group’s communications.
“We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression,” said Hezbollah on Tuesday.
Israel, on the other hand, did not issue an immediate comment following the blast.
Source: @BabakTaghvaee1 on X
According to BBC, another 14 people were also wounded in pager explosions in Syria where the group is fighting alongside the Syrian government in its civil war.
As for how the pagers exploded, an anonymous former British Army munitions expert told the BBC that they could have held up to 20g of military-grade explosive.
Two sources confirmed with Reuters that Israel’s Mossad spy agency planted explosives inside 5,000 pagers.
The tampered devices had been imported months before the fatal detonations.
A source further said that the pagers detonated when they received a coded message.
Also read: Israeli airstrike kills mother & baby twins in Gaza, father was out registering birth
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Featured image adapted from @saikirankannan on X and @BabakTaghvaee1 on X.
The authorities have investigated and closed the incident with no follow-ups required, MFA said.
He crossed the border daily in hopes of buying a house for his family.
On a few days, the thundery showers might extend into the night.
His church has urged parishioners to refrain from visiting him as he heals.
The kitten will be put up for adoption after its injuries are cured.
The toasts were barely a few centimetres thick.