Lebanon’s hospitals have been overrun with thousands of injured patients maimed after pagers belonging to Hezbollah fighters exploded across the country today.
The wave of sudden and unexpected detonations, which began around 3.45pm local time (1345 GMT) and lasted roughly an hour, has so far left at least nine people, including two young girls, dead and over 3,000 Hezbollah members and civilians injured, with over 200 people in a critical condition.
Widespread panic and chaotic scenes were seen across Beirut’s southern suburbs, the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon, while in neighbouring Syria 14 people were injured by the blasts, according to Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Harrowing video footage taken inside medical institutes in the country’s capital, Beirut, has revealed the severe consequences of the simultaneous explosions, which Hezbollah and Lebanon’s government have blamed Israel for.
One horrifying video opened with a man, covered head to toe in his own blood, with four of his fingers and his right eye missing. The video then pans over to another man sitting in a wheelchair with several fingers missing and blood across his face.
The video then shows a man lying on a gurney with a large chunk of his abdomen missing, before showing a man carrying an unconscious child through the hospital.
Another video showed patients writhing on the floor in agony as medical staff try desperately to treat them.
A part of this man’s abdomen was missing following the attack
This is the moment a pager exploded in a supermarket, blowing its owner (bottom left) to the ground and causing significant injuries
A pager was seen exploding in this CCTV footage from a Beirut supermarket
White bandages can be seen wrapped around the limbs of people inside a hospital, with doctors’ white coats covered in blood as they try to get through the throng of people inside the medical institution.
Men, women and children can be heard howling in agony, while doctors and nurses try to shout over the noise to communicate with each other.
One man, barely conscious, was seen being carried by two others through the hospital, as paramedics bring through another set of patients to treat.
The spate of explosions was caught on camera across Lebanon, with one bit of CCTV footage showing a pager exploding in a supermarket, sending a man flying.
Another clip, also from CCTV footage, showed a pager blowing up as a man walked up to a till in a supermarket.
Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) said people ‘have been taken to hospital after the handheld pagers system was detonated using advanced technology’ and relayed urgent calls from hospitals in the country’s south for people to donate blood.
At Mt. Lebanon hospital, a Reuters reporter saw motorcycles rushing to the emergency room, where people with their hands bloodied were screaming in pain.
Beirut’s hospitals have been overrun with thousands of injured patients maimed in after pagers belonging to Hezbollah fighters unexpectedly exploded across Lebanon today
Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) said people ‘have been taken to hospital after the handheld pagers system was detonated using advanced technology’
A Lebanese army soldier gestures to an ambulance rushing wounded people to a hospital in Beirut on September 17, 2024
One horrifying video opened with a prostrate man, covered head to toe in his own blood, with four of his fingers and his right eye missing
Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) said people ‘have been taken to hospital after the handheld pagers system was detonated using advanced technology’
People gather outside a hospital, as more than 1,000 people, including Hezbollah fighters and medics, were wounded on Tuesday when the pagers they use to communicate exploded across Lebanon, according to a security source, in Beirut, Lebanon September 17, 2024
Civil Defence first-responders carry a wounded man whose handheld pager exploded at al-Zahraa hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024
Similar scenes were captured by photographers outside the American University of Beirut Medical Centre.
The head of the Nabatieh public hospital in the south of the country, Hassan Wazni, told Reuters that around 40 wounded people were being treated at his facility. The wounds included injuries to the face, eyes and limbs.
Lebanon’s crisis operations centre, which is run by the health ministry, asked all medical workers to head to their respective hospitals to help cope with the massive numbers of wounded coming in for urgent care.
It also stressed that health care workers should not use pagers.
The Lebanese Red Cross said more than 50 ambulances and 300 emergency medical staff were dispatched to help in the evacuation of victims.
Lebanese citizens have begun donating blood in their droves, with pop-up blood drives being seen near Beirut’s main hospitals.
The stunning incident saw scores of Hezbollah members severely injured throughout southern Lebanon and in its capital Beirut
Lebanon’s crisis operations centre, which is run by the health ministry, asked all medical workers to head to their respective hospitals to help cope with the massive numbers of wounded coming in for urgent care
A man donates blood under a tent in Beirut’s southern suburb on September 17, 2024 following the series of explosions across Lebanon
Friends and relatives of injured people arrive at the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) after an incident involving Hezbollah members’ wireless devices in Beirut, Lebanon
Hezbollah says that Israel is ‘fully responsible’ for the simultaneous explosion, warning that the nation would be punished.
‘We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression,’ the group said in a statement, adding that Israel ‘will certainly receive its just punishment for this sinful aggression’. The Israeli military declined to comment on the incidents.
The terror group said in a second statement: ‘After examining all the facts, current data, and available information about the sinful attack that took place this afternoon, we hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression that targeted civilians too.’
It added it would continue to support ‘Palestinian resistance’ and that the ‘treacherous and criminal enemy will certainly be punished for this aggressive act.’
The Lebanese government, meanwhile, condemned the pager explosions as ‘criminal Israeli aggression.’
Police officers inspect a car inside of which a hand-held pager exploded, Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024
Pagers used by Hezbollah members for vital communications exploded this afternoon, injuring hundreds
Lebanese citizens have swarmed around hospitals for hours following the incident
Prime Minister Najib Mikati said in a cabinet meeting today, following the incidents, that the attack was ‘criminal Israeli aggression, which constitutes a serious violation of Lebanese sovereignty and a crime by all standards.’
Information minister Ziad Makary said the government has contacted the United Nations to ‘hold them accountable for this continuing crime.’
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric has since described the developments across Lebanon as ‘extremely concerning’, adding: ‘We deplore the civilian casualties that we have seen. We cannot underscore enough the risks of escalation in Lebanon and in the region.’
Lebanon’s health minister Firas Abiad subsequently said the death toll had climbed to eight, while Iranian news agencies confirmed that Iran‘s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was injured in one blast, and is being treated in hospital.
The shocking incident constitutes the single largest intelligence breach in the militant outfit’s history, an official said, with speculation mounting that the technology was somehow hacked or sabotaged by Israeli security services.
One source close to Hezbollah told AFP the incident came as a direct result of an ‘Israeli breach’ of its communications.
A person is carried on a stretcher outside American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) as people, including Hezbollah fighters and medics, were wounded and killed when the pagers they use to communicate exploded across Lebanon
Hospitals in Lebanon have been overwhelmed by the explosions
Edward Snowden, infamous for leaking classified material from the US’ National Security Agency, said he believed the incident was ‘not a hack’
A different official told AP on condition of anonymity that the cause of the explosions was likely the lithium batteries that power the pagers, which can catch on fire when overheated.
‘Pagers belonging to employees of various Hezbollah units and institutions exploded,’ an official statement from the Iran-backed militant group said, adding that the blasts ‘killed a girl and two of our brothers’.
Earlier this year, Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah urged members of his organisation to revert to using a new brand of pagers for vital communications, reasoning that modern smartphones would be more susceptible to cyber attacks by Israeli forces.
Israeli officials are yet to comment on the incident.
Edward Snowden, infamous for leaking classified material from the US’ National Security Agency, said he believed the incident was ‘not a hack.’
‘As information comes in about the exploding beepers in Lebanon, it seems now more likely than not to be implanted explosives, not a hack’, he said on X.
He added: ‘Why? Too many consistent, very serious injuries. If it were overheated batteries exploding, you’d expect many more small fires & misfires.’
The incident comes at a time of heightened tensions between Lebanon and Israel. The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israeli forces have been clashing near-daily for more than 11 months against the backdrop of war between Israel and Hezbollah ally Hamas in Gaza.
The clashes have killed hundreds in Lebanon and dozens in Israel and displaced tens of thousands on both sides of the border. On Tuesday, Israel said that halting Hezbollah’s attacks in the north to allow residents to return to their homes is now an official war goal.
Israel has killed Hamas militants in the past with booby trapped cellphones and it’s widely believed to have been behind the Stuxnet computer virus attack on Iran’s nuclear program in 2010.
The sudden explosions across southern Lebanon this afternoon come hours after an Israeli strike on Lebanon killed three people, the health ministry said.
Israeli forces have traded near-daily fire with the Iran-backed Lebanese group since its ally Hamas launched the October 7 attacks on Israel, triggering the war in Gaza.
The health ministry said an ‘Israeli enemy strike’ on the border village of Blida killed ‘three people and wounded two’, without specifying if they were fighters or civilians.
Israel’s military said its air force ‘eliminated three terrorists’ from Hezbollah who were at a ‘terrorist infrastructure site’ in the Blida area.
Hezbollah did not immediately announce any fighters had been killed, but claimed a series of attacks on Israeli troops and positions near the border on Tuesday.
The NNA reported several Israeli attacks in the south of the country.
The remnants of what is believed to be a pager carried by a Lebanese militant that detonated earlier today
An image grab taken from a UGC video posted on social media on September 17, 2024, shows men covered in blood in Beirut’s southern suburbs after dozens of Hezbollah group members were injured when their pagers exploded
The latest deaths came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the political-security cabinet had ‘updated the goals of the war’ to include ‘the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes’.
Almost a year of cross-border violence has displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Monday that ‘military action’ was the ‘only way left to ensure the return of Israel’s northern communities’.
The violence has killed some 627 people in Lebanon, including at least 141 civilians.
On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, authorities have announced the deaths of at least 24 soldiers and 26 civilians.
Hezbollah has repeatedly said that only a ceasefire in Gaza will put an end to its attacks, and diplomatic activity in recent months has sought to avert all-out war.
