September 18 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib on Wednesday called on the United Nations to exert “maximum pressure” on Israel to “stop this escalation” following the recent coordinated attack on thousands of pager devices belonging to the Lebanese militia-party Hezbollah, attributed to Israel.
During a meeting with the UN special coordinator in Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the minister stressed that this “unprecedented Israeli attack” represents “a blatant attack on Lebanon’s sovereignty and security.”
He also said that it was a “clear violation of all international conventions and norms.” The attack, which threatens to expand the conflict and plunge the region “into a greater cycle of violence,” comes “amid Israeli threats to expand the war front in Lebanon.”
For all these reasons, Bou Habib has asked the UN to exert “maximum pressure on Israel” to “end its attacks in Lebanon and implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701,” according to the NNA news agency.
Hennis-Plasschaert deplored the attack yesterday and reminded the parties that, “in accordance with humanitarian law”, “civilians are not a target and must be protected at all times”. “Even one victim is too many,” she said in a statement.
“Today’s events mark an extremely worrying escalation in an already volatile context (…) Hennis-Plasschaert urges all actors involved to refrain from any further bellicose actions or rhetoric that could trigger a wider conflagration,” she added.
The Lebanese government on Wednesday raised the death toll from the explosion of these devices to twelve, including two children and two health workers. The interim Lebanese Minister of Health, Firas Abiad, has specified that the number of injured is between 2,750 and 2,800, including 300 in serious condition.
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.
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