US says Houthis have downed 2 Reaper drones in under a week

The US military confirmed the Yemen-based group downed an American MQ-9 Reaper drone on September 10, while a second was destroyed on Monday.

We previously reported that a video published by the Houthis on September 16 showed the wreckage of one downed Reaper drone in Yemen’s Dhamar province.

Reaper drones cost about $30m each, can fly up to 50,000 feet (15,240 metres) and can stay airborne for 24 hours.

The Pentagon’s press secretary, Major General Pat Ryder, said US authorities are investigating Monday’s downing, without offering more information. He denied Houthi claims that the Iran-backed group had downed 10 Reapers since November.

_{People gather around the wreckage of what Yemen’s Houthis say is a US MQ-9 drone that they downed in Dhamar province, Yemen}

Israeli army says it intercepted Hezbollah drone

The Israeli army intercepted a Hezbollah drone over the Tiberias region, Israeli Army Radio said in a post on X. The drone was reportedly shot down after alerts were activated warning Israeli residents of the northern Galilee and Tiberias areas of “hostile aircraft infiltration”, according to Army Radio.

Israeli army claims to strike Hezbollah buildings in Lebanon’s south

The Israeli army claimed to attack Hezbollah military infrastructure in the Majdal Selem area of ​​southern Lebanon last night, it said in a post on X. Fighter jets and warplanes attacked the group’s military buildings in five different areas in the south, including Odaisseh, Markaba, Blida, Maroun al-Ras and Chihine, the army said.

Hezbollah mourns deaths of 12 fighters

The Lebanese armed group announced the deaths on its Telegram channel in the early hours of Wednesday morning. It did not say if the fighters were killed in the pager explosions or attacks elsewhere.

As we’ve been reporting, Lebanese health officials said nine people were killed in the attacks.

Hezbollah has blamed Israel for the simultaneous explosions that also wounded at least 2,750 across Lebanon. Israel has so far declined to comment on the detonations.


Hezbollah promises to ‘support Gaza and its people’ despite pager attacks

The Lebanese armed group has issued a defiant statement, saying the deadly pager explosions only increase its determination to press on with its operations against Israel.

“The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon extends its highest congratulations and warmest condolences to the families of the honourable martyrs who died yesterday, Tuesday, whether on the southern front in Blida and Majdal Silm, or the martyrs who died in the treacherous and widespread aggression through the bombing of communication devices,” the statement said.

“The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon will continue today, as in all the past days, its blessed operations to support Gaza, its people, and its resistance, and to defend Lebanon, its people, and its sovereignty. This path is continuous and separate from the difficult reckoning that the criminal enemy must await for its massacre on Tuesday that it committed against our people, our families, and our mujahideen in Lebanon. This is another reckoning that will come, God willing.”

It added: “What happened yesterday will increase our determination and resolve to continue on the path of jihad and resistance, and we are absolutely certain of God Almighty’s promise to the faithful, patient mujahideen of victory, God willing.”

Iraqi armed group offers to send fighters, equipment to Hezbollah

Kataib Hezbollah, a prominent Iran-backed armed group in Iraq, has offered support to Lebanon’s Hezbollah in the wake of Tuesday’s pager attacks, according to the Al-Monitor news outlet.

“We … are putting all our capabilities in the hands of our brothers in Lebanon, and we are fully prepared to go with them until the end, sending fighters and equipment and support, whether on the technical or logistical level,” the group said in a statement.

Iraqi military plane carrying medical supplies arrives in Beirut

Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported that the plane landed at the Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport this morning as hospitals across the country struggle to cope with the influx of wounded following yesterday’s pager explosions.

Lebanon’s Minister of Health, Firas al-Abyad, received the supplies, NNA said.

Iranian Red Crescent arrives in Lebanon

A medical relief delegation from Iran’s Red Crescent has arrived in Lebanon to assist with those injured from yesterday’s pager attack, local Iranian media reported. According to Iran’s Tasnim News Agency, the relief team includes the president of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, 12 doctors, and 12 nurses and paramedics.

The pager explosions killed at least nine people and wounded 2,750 others, including a young girl. At least 200 of those wounded are in a critical condition.

Jordan has offered to provide any medical assistance needed to to “treat the thousands of Lebanese citizens who were injured in the mass bombing in Lebanon,” Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on X.

The statement said that Jordan’s caretaker Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi had called Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati to offer Jordan’s support for “Lebanon’s security, sovereignty and stability”, after the attack in which hundreds of pagers exploded in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon.

Safadi also stressed the need to stop “dangerous escalation” in the region, by immediately ending “Israeli aggression on Gaza and the escalation in the West Bank”, the statement added.

Egypt affirms ‘steadfast support’ for Lebanon after pager attacks

Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty has offered assistance to the Lebanese people and affirmed Cairo’s “steadfast support” to Lebanon following Tuesday’s deadly pager attacks.

He made the comments during separate phone calls with Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Foreign Minister Abdallah Bouhabib, according to Egypt’s Al Ahram newspaper.

The minister conveyed President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s commitment to Lebanon’s security and stability and his rejection of any violation of the country’s sovereignty by any external party, Al Ahram reported.

Taiwanese involvement in Lebanon attacks ‘simply impossible’

Jhy-Chern Liu, a professor at the National University of Science and Technology in Taiwan, said the idea that any Taiwanese firm would get involved in the attack on Lebanon’s Hezbollah was “simply impossible and unthinkable”.

The comments came amid reports that the pagers used in the attacks were made by the Taiwanese company Gold Apollo. The firm has since denied the report, saying the devices were made by a company in Europe that had the right to use its brand.

Liu told Al Jazeera that Gold Apollo is a small company, “specialised in making pagers, particularly the types commonly used in food stalls in shopping malls to inform clients that the food or table is ready”.

The company was established in 1995, valued at about $3m and with 35 employees, he said.

“Even though Taiwan has been very close to the US in all aspects, I do not believe that any companies in Taiwan would be involved in a deadly plot like this, considering that Taiwan is an open society and a full democracy,” he added.

Taiwanese company names European firm it says produced pagers

Gold Apollo, the Taiwanese manufacturer of the pagers linked to the deadly explosions in Lebanon, is saying that it has licensed its trademarked design to another company and that it had “no involvement in the design or manufacturing” of the devices.

“We authorise BAC to use our brand trademark for product sales in specific regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are entirely handled by BAC,” the company said in a statement, providing the initials of the firm allegedly responsible for producing the devices.

Gold Apollo founder and president, Hsu Ching-Kuang, said BAC is based in Europe, but declined to offer further details on the firm.

“We may not be a large company but we are a responsible one,” he told reporters at Gold Apollo’s offices in New Taipei City. “This is very embarrassing.”

_{A police officer arrives at the Gold Apollo office in New Taipei City, Taiwan, on September 18}

Taiwanese firm says pagers that exploded were made by BAC Consulting

In another statement today, the Taiwanese company said the pagers were manufactured by BAC Consulting KFT, based in Hungary’s capital Budapest.

“According to the cooperation agreement, we authorise BAC to use our brand trademark for product sales in designated regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are solely the responsibility of BAC,” the statement read.

Gold Apollo chair Hsu Ching-kuang and other Gold Apollo representatives did not give more details about BAC at a press briefing and did not show any proof of the organisations’ agreement, the AP reported.

According to the agency, when Hsu was pressed for more information on BAC, he became quiet and left.

What do we know about BAC, the firm said to be behind the pagers’ blasts?

Taiwan’s Economy Ministry to assist pagers’ manufacturer in investigation

Taiwan’s Economy Ministry has said it will continue to assist the manufacturer of the pagers used to attack Hezbollah members in Lebanon in the investigation.

The Taiwanese company Gold Apollo has said a company called “BAC” manufactured pagers used in the Lebanon blasts. The ministry said the manufacturer denied having a record of direct exports to Lebanon and that the pagers may have been modified after export.

It added that the batteries in the devices were of the ordinary “AAA” type.

Taiwan dragged into Middle East politics after deadly pager blasts

Taiwan’s crucial tech industry has been unwittingly drawn into Middle East politics after revelations that thousands of exploding pagers used to kill members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group were manufactured using the branding of a Taiwanese firm.

The firm, Gold Apollo, has denied that it had manufactured the AR-924 model pagers that exploded en masse in Lebanon, saying they had been made by a European company named BAC through a licensing deal,

But analysts said the incident raises uncomfortable questions for the island’s tech industry going forward.

“This incident will be a huge, critical lesson for the industry,” said Christy Chiang, a professor in tech law at National Taiwan Ocean University.

“The Taiwan tech industry used to think they are only manufacturers of hardware, so they have nothing to do with politics, they are doing their own business. But not any more.”

Medical staff, children among those killed in pager blasts: Health Ministry

Lebanon’s Minister of Health Firass Abiad has held a media conference in Beirut on the situation in the aftermath of the pager blasts.

Abiad said many of those carrying the pagers were civilians. At least 12 people have been killed, including four medical staff, an eight-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy.

The attack showed that Israel was “steering away from a diplomatic solution,” Abiad said. “We have to be ready and alert.” The minister said the biggest challenge was to bring medical sector to a “situation of preparedness”, which includes increasing stockpiles of medicines and fuel.

Hospitals also needed to recover from the massive influx of patients overnight. Abiad said each hospital received 70 to 100 patients in the aftermath of the attack, which was “massive for any country”.

_{The American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC), after Tuesday’s pager attack}


Lebanon’s UN envoy denounces pager attacks as a ‘war crime’

Hadi Hachem said Israel’s alleged detonation of pagers in Lebanon and Syria amounted to “aggression which rises to a war crime”, as he accused the country of escalating regional tensions.

Speaking at an emergency session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), discussing the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territory on Tuesday, Lebanon’s ambassador to the UN warned that the attack would exacerbate the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

Hachem also accused Israel of defying international law and undermining the country’s sovereignty with repeated attacks on southern Lebanon since October.

At least nine people were killed, including at least one child, while some 2,750 others were injured, as pagers used by Hezbollah members simultaneously exploded in locations across Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday.

Hezbollah has blamed Israel for the attack. Israel is yet to comment.

Why was Hezbollah using pagers in Lebanon?

Pagers are small communication devices used commonly before mobile phones became widespread. They are harder to monitor compared with normal phones, making them popular with groups such as Hezbollah where both mobility and security are paramount.

In February, the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah ordered members to stop using mobile phones, warning they could be tracked by the Israeli army. The warning had come amid a series of precision strikes targeting the group’s operatives.

Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon loses one eye in pager explosions: Report

The New York Times (NYT), citing two members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, has reported that Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, lost one eye and is severely injured in the other due to yesterday’s pager explosions.

The guards told the outlet that the ambassador’s injuries were more serious than initially stated and that he would be medically evacuated to Tehran for treatment.

“One of the Guards members said the pagers, including the one used by the ambassador, beeped for about 10 seconds before exploding, prompting some victims to hold the devices close to their eyes and faces to check for a message. Hence the large number of severe eye injuries,” said NYT journalist Farnaz Fassihi.

Iranian media had earlier stated that Amini was “lightly” injured from the attack.

Iran says reports about Lebanon envoy’s vision are false

The statement from Iran’s embassy in Lebanon comes after The New York Times reported that Ambassador Amani had lost one eye and was severely injured in the other following yesterday’s pager explosions.

In a post on X, the embassy said the treatment of Amani was “progressing well and that the rumors about” his “physical condition and vision are false”.

Lebanon Health Ministry worried about an ‘all out war’

The [Lebanese] health minister was keen to point out that this attack really put intense pressure on the actual health service and the emergency response.

He said the total injured are between 2,750 and 2,800. At least 300 of those are in critical condition. Many of them are in intensive care units. The ministry said that people were taken to at least 100 hospitals across the country. Up to 1,084 ambulances were pressed into action to cater to the unprecedented attacks.

There was also a regional response that he talked about; very keen to point out that aid had been sent from Iran, Jordan and Iraq so far, with more expected to arrive. He also said that the attack has had a profound significance… We, as a health service, have to be prepared, he said.

The minister also talked about making sure that the preparedness, which at the moment is between about three and six months, actually goes up to longer than that. They are worried clearly about escalation, about an all out war, and they’re talking now about being prepared for that.

UN General Assembly reviews draft resolution by Palestine calling for end to Israeli occupation

In a historic moment, Palestine, newly promoted to observer status at the UN General Assembly (UNGA), has submitted a draft resolution at the body demanding an end to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territories.

Building on a recent International Court of Justice ruling, the resolution calls for Israel to withdraw its troops, halt settlement expansion, and return land taken since 1967 within 12 months.

While the US opposes the resolution, it has no veto power in the UNGA, and the body has previously supported Palestinian recognition. The resolution, which will be voted on by UNGA members today, is not legally binding, but reflects global opinion as leaders gather for high-level UN meetings next week.

Egypt rejects attempts at escalation in the region: El-Sisi to Blinken

Cairo rejects any attempts at escalation in the region, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the wake of the pager explosions in Lebanon and Syria.

In a meeting with Blinken in Cairo, el-Sisi said his country supported Lebanon after the pager blasts incident, according to a statement from the president’s office.

The US top diplomat is in Cairo on his 10th trip to the Middle East since the start of the war in Gaza last October. He is in the region to push for a ceasefire in Gaza.

UN rights chief demands accountability for Lebanon pager blasts

Volker Turk says those responsible for the deadly wave of explosions across Lebanon targeting paging devices used by members of Hezbollah “must be held to account”.

“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,” the UN rights chief said in a statement.

Iranian president says Lebanon blasts should shame Israel’s allies

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says Western backers of Israel should feel “shame” after paging devices belonging to Lebanon’s Hezbollah exploded in a deadly attack on Tuesday, which the Tehran-aligned group blamed on Israel.

“Western countries and the Americans … fully support the crimes, killings and indiscriminate assassinations of the Zionist regime,” Pezeshkian said in a statement, referring to Israel.

Majority of injured have facial wounds: Doctor

Dr Salah Zeineldine, chief medical officer at the American University of Beirut (AUB) Medical Center, says the majority of those who were admitted to hospital following yesterday’s pager explosions had facial injuries to their eyes and nose, as well as injuries to the lower abdomen and their hands, mostly their fingers.

“Unfortunately with the hands, we had a lot of amputation of fingers, and with the eyes, we had lots of injuries which would leave permanent dysfunctional eyes or complete impairment,” Zeineldine told Al Jazeera.

He also said that it is common for medical staff to use pagers. “We [at AUB] use them for a limited number of personnel, who are [in] high demand, and the high stakes personnel who need to be activated urgently,” he said.

_{People gather as smoke rises from a mobile shop in Sidon}

Exploding pagers harm civilians too: Human Rights Watch

According to the rights group’s Middle East and North Africa director, international law prohibits the use of booby traps precisely to avoid the devastating scenes that continue to unfold across Lebanon today.

A prompt and impartial investigation into the exploding pager attacks should be urgently conducted, Lama Fakih said in a statement.

“The use of an explosive device whose exact location could not be reliably known would be unlawfully indiscriminate, using a means of attack that could not be directed at a specific military target and as a result would strike military targets and civilians without distinction,” Fakih said.

‘Civilian objects’ should not be weaponised: UN chief

Civilian objects should not be weaponised, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says in the wake of a deadly wave of explosions across Lebanon targeting devices used by Hezbollah.

“I think it’s very important that there is an effective control of civilian objects, not to weaponise civilian objects, that should be a rule that … governments should be able to implement,” Guterres said at a briefing at UN headquarters in New York.

“As important as the event in itself is the indication that this event confirms that there is a serious risk of a dramatic escalation in Lebanon and everything must be done to avoid the escalation,” Guterres said.

“What has happened is particularly serious not only because of the number of victims that it caused but because of the indications that exist that this was triggered, I would say, in advance of a normal way to trigger these things because there was a risk of this being discovered.”

Explosions near Tyre

I witnessed two explosions. There was a car that exploded just behind us. At the same time, there was an explosion at another place. I’m currently in the middle of the street. There are a lot of ambulances, chaos everywhere.

Lebanon foreign minister says pager blasts an omen of wider war

Abdallah Bou Habib has said the deadly explosion of hundreds of pagers could be an omen of a wider conflict in the Middle East.

According to Lebanon’s National News Agency, the foreign minister warned of the incident’s gravity, “because it comes after Israeli threats to expand the focus of the war with Lebanon, which would plunge the region into a larger cycle of violence, and signal a wider war”.

You should have done more to stop Israel. Calling for restraint every time Israel commits another massacre isn't solving anything.

Day 2 of attacks likely launched before ‘exposure’ of rigged devices

Amir Oren, a military analyst with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, says if Israel is responsible for the second day of device attacks, the blasts have likely been carried out before Hezbollah realized other systems had also been compromised.

The mass explosions on Tuesday reportedly targeted pagers used by the Lebanese group while blasts today occurred in phones, laptops and walkie-talkies.

“If Israel had done it yesterday, it really didn’t have any choice but to go on today because, otherwise, Hezbollah would have methodically looked into it and exposed it,” Oren told Al Jazeera.

He highlighted news reports from outside Israel saying there was a “use it or lose it” situation involving the rigged devices because the attack plan was about to be revealed. Oren suggested the attacks do not mean a major military campaign is about to be launched.

“Had Israel really wanted to go to war immediately after the pager attacks, we could have sent ground troops into Lebanon. Israel has not done that and is still in a defensive mode along the border.”