September 18 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Lebanese government on Wednesday raised the death toll to twelve, including two children and two health workers, caused by the explosion of thousands of pagers allegedly used by members of the Shiite militia party Hezbollah, an event that has been blamed on Israel, amid tensions and clashes with the group for more than eleven months.
The number of injured was between 2,750 and 2,800, including 300 in serious condition, said the interim Lebanese Health Minister, Firas Abiad. Of these, 1,850 were injured in the capital, Beirut, while another 750 were residents of southern towns and 150 in the Bekaa Valley (east).
Abiad stressed that the response of the medical teams has played an important role in ensuring the response by the hospitals and pointed out that some of the patients have been evacuated to Syria and Iran for treatment, according to the Lebanese television channel LBCI.
Although the explosions had initially been attributed to a cyber attack, US officials have confirmed to The New York Times that Israeli intelligence had managed to conceal explosive material inside a new batch of some 3,000 pagers imported into Lebanon.
These devices were loaded with explosive material weighing between 30 and 60 grams, along with the battery of each pager and a system that could be activated remotely for detonation upon arrival in Lebanese territory, after which Hezbollah distributed them among its members in Lebanon, Syria and even Iran.
All of the pagers that were on received a message at 3:30 p.m. (local time) that ended up activating the explosives after a notification beep lasting several seconds. Although many of the victims are believed to be members of Hezbollah, among the dead there is a girl and it is unknown how many of them are actually members of the group and in what positions they operate.
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