Hezbollah walkie talkie blasts: 20 dead in new wave of explosions as Israel blamed for pager attack
Twenty people have been killed and at least 450 have been injured after a second day of explosions in Beirut and other cities in Lebanon, after hand-held walkie-talkie devices detonated.
At least one of the blasts reportedly took place near a funeral organized by Iran-backed Hezbollah for those killed the previous day when thousands of pagers used by the group exploded across the country.
While Israel have not confirmed they are behind the attack, their defence minister told troops that they were at the “start of a new phase in the war”, and would be shifting focus to their northern border.
Meanwhile, US officials said that Israel decided to blow up the pager devices on carried by militia group Hezbollah earlier than planned over fears the operation would be discovered.
12 people including two children were killed and nearly 3,000 were wounded after the handheld devices simultaneously detonated across Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday afternoon.
“It was a use it or lose it moment,” one US official told Axios about the reasoning Israel gave the Washington for the timing of the attack.
The Iran-backed militant group has vowed to retaliate against Israel, whose military declined to comment on the blasts.
