Death toll climbs to 20 in Wednesday’s walkie-talkie explosions in Lebanon, health ministry says
The death toll from Wednesday’s walkie-talkie explosions in Lebanon has risen to at least 20, with more than 450 injured, according to the country’s health ministry.
Israel launched Tuesday's pager attack when it believed Hezbollah discovered the capability, source says
Israel launched the Tuesday pager attack after it believed the capability had been discovered by Hezbollah, according to an Israeli source familiar with national security.
The decision was made to explode them before word spread and everyone got rid of their pagers, the source said.
It was a “use it or lose it” moment, the source added.
The pager attack was not meant to escalate the tensions with Lebanon but was a “surgical” strike on Hezbollah, the source said. The source noted the Iranian ties to Hezbollah, adding “You have to ask why the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon was holding a Hezbollah beeper.”
Lebanon pager blast was a "violation of international humanitarian law," UN official says
United Nations Human Rights Chief Volker Türk has condemned the pager blasts in Lebanon on Tuesday that killed at least 12 people and injured around 2,800.
Türk called the attacks a violation of international humanitarian law and called for an “independent, thorough and transparent investigation.”
CNN has learned that the Israeli military and intelligence service were behind Tuesday’s attack, but Israeli officials have not publicly commented on it, or on Wednesday’s walkie-talkie explosions.
Türk also did not comment on Wednesday’s walk-talkie blasts, and his comments were only in reference to the Tuesday pager blasts.
“Simultaneous targeting of thousands of individuals, whether civilians or members of armed groups, without knowledge as to who was in possession of the targeted devices, their location and their surroundings at the time of the attack, violates international human rights law and, to the extent applicable, international humanitarian law,” Turk said in a statement on Wednesday.
The UN rights chief also said that whoever ordered and carried out the attack “must be held to account.” Turk’s call for an investigation into the blasts was echoed by International NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) who said the investigation should be “prompt” and “urgently conducted.”
“Customary international humanitarian law prohibits the use of booby traps – objects that civilians are likely to be attracted to or are associated with normal civilian daily use – precisely to avoid putting civilians at grave risk and produce the devastating scenes that continue to unfold across Lebanon today,” HRW’s Middle East and North Africa director Lama Fakih said.
