‘Treacherous enemy’: Hezbollah blames Israel for pager blasts
We now have Hezbollah’s second statement about the simultaneous explosions of thousands of communication devices in Lebanon.
“After examining all the facts, current data, and available information about the sinful attack that took place this afternoon, we hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression that targeted civilians too,” the group said.
Hezbollah said it will continue to support the “Palestinian resistance” and added the “treacherous and criminal enemy will certainly be punished for this aggressive act”.
Lebanese cabinet blames Israel for deadly pager explosions
The information minister says the cabinet condemns what he calls an “Israeli criminal aggression which is a dangerous violation to Lebanon’s sovereignty”.
Speaking from Beirut, Ziad Makary said: “Lebanon’s main priority is putting an end to the Israeli attacks targeting our citizens’ lives and livelihoods.
“These crimes are the responsibility of the international community,” he said, adding that the cabinet has reached out to several states to pressure Israel to stop its “aggression” and abide by UN resolutions.
Death toll in Lebanon pager blasts rises to 9
Lebanon’s minister of health says nine people are now confirmed dead in a series of explosions of pagers across the country. Abiad said among those killed is an 8-year-old girl from the Bekaa Valley. At least 2,800 people have been wounded, and more than 200 are in critical condition.
The majority of the injuries recorded so far are to the face, hands, arms and abdomen, he said.
People gather outside the American University of Beirut Medical Center
Lebanon hospitals have had ‘disaster plans’ since war on Gaza began: Minister
Abiad has spoken to Al Jazeera about the pager explosions, which have killed at least nine people and wounded about 2,750 across the county.
Calling it an “ongoing incident”, Lebanon’s health minister said he expected to have “more accurate numbers and information with time” and reiterated that most of the injuries are “either in the face, especially in the eyes, or in the hands or in the abdomen”.
Abiad said Lebanon “reactivated” its public health emergency operating centre after Israel’s war on Gaza began more than 11 months ago.
“We have been doing drills and preparing disaster plans with the hospitals, with our partners in the health sectors,” he said.
“Unfortunately, the geographical distribution of the injuries was quite wide. We saw that there were cases in Beirut, in the southern suburbs. We also had cases in the south and cases in Bekaa,” Abiad said.
Despite this, hospitals were able to direct and triage patients so that none of the country’s hospitals would become “overwhelmed”, he said.
