At least one of them died from the explosion of his ‘pager’
September 18 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Lebanese Shiite militia party Hezbollah confirmed early Wednesday morning the death of twelve of its members without specifying the circumstances and after a day marked by the explosion of beeping devices belonging to members of the Islamist group, an incident that left at least nine dead and 2,800 injured and for which Beirut blames Israel.
The dead have been identified as Yussef Madi Alwa ‘Hadi’, Hasan Ahmed Muhamad ‘Mustafa’, Nayib Abdul Hussein Ala al Din ‘Alí Mazlum’, Hasan Muhamad Yasin ‘Yamen’, Hussein Ahmed Mantash ‘Salá’, Muhamad Zakaria Abbas ‘Haidara ‘, Abbas Bilal Munin ‘Mirza Mahdi’, Muhammad Mahdi Ali Ammar ‘Dhu al Fiqar’, Hussein Ali Ala el Din ‘Zakaria’, Hussein Ayub Faqi ‘Baqer’, Abbas Fadl Yasin ‘Abu al Fadl’ and Mahdi Abbas Samhat ‘Yawad Maatuq’, as published by the Lebanese television channel Al Manar, which is related to the group.
Among them, ‘Haidara’ died in the explosion of his ‘pager’, according to a statement from the Lebanese municipality of Yiye, which has “deeply” regretted the death of “a man loved and cherished by all the people.”
The Dean’s Office of the Municipality’s Higher Institute for Doctoral Studies in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences also expressed its condolences for “an educated and distinguished student in the field of geography” who “was loved by all the teachers, staff and students” and who “was in the final stages of presenting his doctoral thesis,” according to the Lebanese state news agency NNA.
Hours before the attacks, the Israeli army had claimed the deaths of three Hezbollah members in airstrikes in southern Lebanon, although the group had not commented on the matter.
HEZBOLLA OFFERS CONDOLENCES TO THE RELATIVES OF THE “MARTYRS”
The party-militia has issued a statement offering its condolences to the families of all the “martyrs” of the day “whether on the southern front in Blida and Majdal Silm, or to the martyrs who died in the treacherous and widespread aggression by blowing up communication devices.”
“What happened yesterday will increase our determination and resolve to continue on the path of jihad and resistance,” continues the letter, also shared by Al Manar, which ends by promising a “response.”
DETAILS OF THE EXPLOSIONS
Although the explosions had initially been attributed to a cyber attack, several US officials have confirmed to The New York Times that Israeli intelligence has managed to hide explosive material inside a new batch of some 3,000 Taiwanese-made “pagers” imported into Lebanon.
These devices, most of which are AP924 models from the Taiwanese company Gold Apollo, were fitted with one or two ounces of explosive material along with the battery of each pager and a switch 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.
However, Gold Apollo founder Hsu Ching-kuang has told reporters that the company had signed a contract with a European distributor for the brand’s own production and that at least one anomaly has been found with this distributor, which has not been named, in reference to a bank transfer that was delayed for a long time, according to the American television network .
All of these pagers that were on received a message at 3:30 p.m. (local time) that ended up activating the explosives after a beep that lasted several seconds. In addition to those injured in Lebanese territory, another 14 Hezbollah members have been injured in Syria.
It is worth recalling that on February 13, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned during a televised speech about the dangers of mobile phones and called for “breaking them, burying them or locking them in an iron box” due to their vulnerability to Israeli intelligence.
In Beirut, both the government and Hezbollah have linked the incident to Israel and have promised a response, although Tel Aviv has remained silent.
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