Several explosions in walkie-talkies Three people were killed and hundreds injured in Hezbollah bombings in Lebanon on Wednesday in the capital and in the south of the country. The explosions came a day after a simultaneous attack on Hezbollah in thousands of villages left at least 12 dead and 3,000 injured on Tuesday. At least one explosion was heard in Dahiye, the militia’s stronghold in southern Beirut, where the burial of four of those killed the previous day was taking place.
Explosions have also been reported around Tyre and Nabatiye, both in the south of the country. The deaths reported so far have occurred in the Bekaa region. The victims have suffered injuries mainly to the stomach and hands.
A video captured the moment when an explosion was heard and a security member fell to the ground, wounded. The images were quickly circulated, including in Israeli Telegram groups, showing the level of infiltration: a burning car in Zahle, in the Bekaa Valley; the explosion of a solar panel; a blackened sofa and table near Tyre…
Preliminary information indicates that the explosions on Wednesday were not in search, but in walkie-talkies. Hezbollah acquired the devices five months ago, the same period in which he bought the pagers, according to a security source cited by Reuters.
Several ambulances were on the way to Dahiye, while young people from the neighbourhood nervously blocked the access roads. Young people with rifles could be seen in the streets of the area and there was a lot of tension among the people passing by. Two tanks and an armoured vehicle from the Lebanese army were guarding the area, which is very unusual.
The attacks have made members of the militia very nervous. They are not allowed to bring computers, they are afraid of iPhones and Al Shabab, the young people who form the soul of Hezbollah, monitor recordings, avoid speaking and speed around on motorbikes.
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Ayya, a young witness wearing an abaya, explained shortly after the incident: “It was a loud sound, but not an explosion, an explosion. There were some screams but the funeral procession continued as normal.” As the coffins were carried, chants were sung: “We will respond to your call, O Hussein,” they chanted.
Another witness, Ali (not his real name), said: “The explosion went off, we turned around and saw a man on the ground, wounded in the hand.”
This incident adds further tension – together with Tuesday’s coordinated attack attributed to the Mossad, Israel’s famous foreign secret services – to the war of attrition between the militia and Israel, since the offensive in Gaza began on October 7. The militia responded to Tuesday’s attack on Wednesday by firing rockets at Israeli artillery positions.
Several drones flew over the site where the funeral ceremony for Tuesday’s victims was taking place. There, Hashem Safi Al Din, a top Hezbollah leader, said: “If the enemy thinks that with this new form of attack they will achieve their goal, they do not know that in our culture, when our left hand is cut off, we take the sword with our right.”
“If he thinks that this will allow the settlers in northern Palestine (the inhabitants of northern Israel) to return to their homes, I tell (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu that he will not achieve this goal and that he will see in the coming months that this is the case,” he added.
The bodies were taken to a room decorated with pictures of Iranian and Hezbollah leaders killed by Israel or the US and with dozens of graves of militants killed “on the road to Jerusalem”.
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