Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel after a wave of pager explosions killed several members of the Lebanon-based Islamist group and left thousands of others injured on Tuesday.
At least 11 people were killed and around 3,000 injured when pagers – which Hezbollah relies on to make messages harder to intercept – started exploding across Lebanon and Syria. Among the wounded was Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amini, as well as a number of top Hezbollah officials.
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While media reports have suggested the explosions were orchestrated by Israel’s spy agency, Mossad, West Jerusalem has not claimed responsibility for the attack.
In a statement on Wednesday, Hezbollah said it holds “the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression.” It also pledged to continue its military operations against Israel in support of Hamas in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza despite the pager blasts.
“This path is continuous and separate from the difficult reckoning that the criminal enemy must await for its massacre on Tuesday… This is another reckoning that will come,” the group added, insisting that the attack will only strengthen its resolve.
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The New York Times reported, citing sources familiar with the matter, that Israel hid the explosives in the pagers, which bore the brand of Taiwanese firm Gold Apollo, before they were sent to Lebanon. Gold Apollo said it had authorized the use of its name on the pagers, but that they had been manufactured by a Budapest-based company.
Hezbollah began using pagers and other low-tech methods of communication out of fear that messages sent by cell phone could be hacked or tracked by Israeli intelligence.
Israel and Hezbollah, which has close ties to Iran, have been at odds for many years, with tensions escalating after the start of the Israel-Hamas war last October. The two have routinely exchanged cross-border attacks that have caused numerous casualties, but have so far refrained from direct engagement.