An exploded pager after the cyber attack against Lebanon on September 17, 2024. Photo: Social Media.
Hundreds were injured across Lebanon on September 17 after an apparent attack on the country’s telecommunications networks caused pagers to explode.
BREAKING | Over 1,000 injured, including a child killed, and multiple Hezbollah members wounded in a series of coordinated ‘pager explosions’ in Lebanon and Syria. Iranian media confirm that the Iranian Ambassador in Beirut is among the injured. The explosions have caused… pic.twitter.com/ulPaxuuUzc
— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) September 17, 2024
Local reports indicate that a majority of the victims are members of the resistance movement Hezbollah. An unofficial toll says as many as 3,000 people were injured, some critically.
Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency reported that the country’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was also injured by one of the exploding devices.
“Wireless communication devices of certain types exploded in several Lebanese regions, especially in the southern suburb, which led to injuries … Therefore, the Internal Security Forces ask citizens to clear the roads to facilitate the treatment of the injured and their transfer to hospitals,” Lebanon’s Internal Security service said in a statement.
The country’s Health Ministry urged anyone who owns similar wireless communication devices to stay away from them until an investigation determines the cause of the explosions.
Explosions and injuries were reported in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiye, the Bekaa Valley, and several locations in Nabatieh, Al-Housh, Bint Jbeil, and Tyre.
“Israel penetrated the individual communications devices system and blew them up,” a high-ranking security official told Sputnik on Tuesday, September 17.
In a since-deleted post on social media, the media consultant and former spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Topaz Luk, hinted that Tel Aviv was behind the mysterious attack.
“This didn’t age well,” Luk commented on an X post that claimed the premier would not make any major move against Lebanon before his trip to New York next week. The comment was deleted a short while later.
“Topaz Luk hasn’t been serving as the prime minister’s spokesman for a few months now, and isn’t in the close circle of discussion,” the Prime Minister’s Office told Hebrew media.
Earlier this year, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah warned resistance members of the risks associated with using smartphones, calling them a “spy device that can be controlled” and urging fighters to “throw them away.”
“We ask our brothers in the South: get rid of your phones! Throw them away, bury them, put them in a metal box, and get rid of them! They’re dangerous!” the Hezbollah leader said in February.
