14 killed, more than 450 wounded in latest device explosions

The Lebanese Health Ministry says 14 people have been killed and more than 450 wounded in today’s electronic device blasts.

On Tuesday, explosions in pagers used by Lebanon’s Hezbollah group killed 12 people and wounded nearly 3,000, about 200 critically.

Taiwan, Hungary deny making pagers that exploded in Lebanon

Taiwan and Hungary have denied making pagers that exploded while being used by Hezbollah members in Lebanon. Taiwan’s Gold Apollo denied producing the devices and instead pointed the finger at its Budapest-based partner BAC Consulting KFT.

But Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said the company “is a trading intermediary, with no manufacturing or operational site in Hungary”.

“The referenced devices have never been in Hungary,” Kovacs said on X.

He added the case “poses no national security risk” and Hungary was cooperating “with all relevant international partner agencies and organisations” in further investigations.

UN Security Council to meet Friday over Lebanon pager blasts

The 15-member body will meet on Friday over the explosions in Lebanon targeting Hezbollah, according to Slovenia’s UN Ambassador Samuel Zbogar, who is the president of the council for September.

The meeting was requested by Algeria on behalf of Arab states, he said.

US Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez decries Lebanon attacks

Progressive US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez raised questions about a possible US role in the wave of explosions in Lebanon, underscoring the attacks have harmed innocent civilians.

“This attack clearly and unequivocally violates international humanitarian law and undermines US efforts to prevent a wider conflict,” she wrote in a social media post.

“Congress needs a full accounting of the attack, including an answer from the State Department as to whether any US assistance went into the development or deployment of this technology.”

Israeli air strikes kill 8 Palestinians in southern Gaza

Gaza’s Civil Defence agency says its teams have pulled the bodies of two Palestinians out at the scene of an air strike on a home in Rafah’s Zuhoor neighbourhood.

In a separate statement, it said rescue workers in another southern city, Khan Younis, retrieved the bodies of six displaced Palestinians killed when an Israeli air strike targeted a home they were sheltering in.

This brings the total number of Palestinians killed in the past several hours in the enclave to at least 26, the agency said.

Four killed in Israeli air raid on Jabalia refugee camp

Four people have been killed and others injured in an Israeli air raid on a group of citizens gathered in Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip, Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for the civil defence agency, says.

At least 48 Palestinians killed across Gaza today

Gaza Civil Defence agency spokesman Mahmoud Basal says many more have been injured in the northern, central and southern areas of the besieged enclave.

Among those killed are nine children, he said.

Israeli forces kill Palestinian boy in East Jerusalem refugee camp

Israeli soldiers killed Hani Majdi al-Kari, 16, in Shufat refugee camp, in occupied East Jerusalem, Wafa news agency reports.

Special forces raided the camp and started shooting live rounds, tear gas, and stun grenades at citizens when they were detected, hitting al-Kari in the abdomen and injuring another man, medics said.

Soldiers also detained five young men, including a journalist.

Israeli forces have killed at least 707 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since October 7. This incudes 160 children and 10 women.

UNGA demands end of unlawful Israeli presence in Palestinian territory

The UN General Assembly has adopted a resolution demanding Israel end “its unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory” within 12 months.

The resolution received 124 votes in favour while 43 countries abstained and Israel, the United States and 12 others voted no.

The action isolates Israel days before world leaders travel to New York for their annual UN gathering. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to address the 193-member General Assembly on September 26, the same day as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The resolution welcomes a July advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice that said Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory and settlements are illegal and should be withdrawn.

The advisory opinion by the highest UN court said this should be done “as rapidly as possible” although the General Assembly resolution imposes a 12-month deadline.

The General Assembly resolution also calls on states to “take steps towards ceasing the importation of any products originating in the Israeli settlements, as well as the provision or transfer of arms, munitions and related equipment to Israel … where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that they may be used in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.

UNGA resolution makes crystal clear that occupation must end: Amnesty

As we reported earlier, the United Nations General Assembly has adopted a resolution demanding that Israel end “its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” within 12 months.

Following the vote, Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnes Callamard said the resolution “makes crystal clear” that Israel’s 57-year occupation “cannot be allowed to continue any longer”.

“Israel must comply with the resolution immediately by withdrawing its forces from the West Bank, including illegally annexed East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, occupied since 1967. Israel must also remove all settlers from the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and reverse its annexation, both in law and in practice,” she said.

“For decades Israel’s unlawful occupation has brought injustice, bloodshed and suffering to Palestinians on a mass scale. Over the past 11 months, the systematic human rights violations that are a hallmark of Israel’s brutal occupation and system of apartheid have drastically intensified.”

Israel denounces ‘cynical’ UN resolution demanding end to occupation

Israel denounced as “distorted” a nonbinding UN General Assembly resolution demanding an end to its occupation of the Palestinian territories within 12 months.

“This is what cynical international politics looks like,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein said on X after UN member states approved the text by 124 votes to 14 with 43 abstentions.

He said it was “a distorted decision that is disconnected from reality, encourages terrorism and harms the chances for peace”.

The political theater called the General Assembly today adopted a distorted decision that is disconnected from reality, encourages terrorism and harms the chances for peace. This is what being disconnected looks like; this is what cynical international politics looks like.

The… pic.twitter.com/K5ITkVTnd5

— Oren Marmorstein (@OrenMarmorstein) September 18, 2024

US Senator Bernie Sanders bids to halt some weapons sales to Israel

The independent politician has said he would file legislation seeking to block the sale of offensive US weapons to Israel, citing the toll on civilians of Israel’s war on Gaza.

Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats, said he intended to file joint resolutions of disapproval next week.

The US Arms Export Control Act gives Congress the right to stop a major foreign weapons sale by passing a resolution of disapproval.

Although no such resolution has both passed Congress and survived a presidential veto, the law requires the Senate to vote if a resolution is filed. At times, such moves have led to angry debates embarrassing to past presidents.

“Providing more offensive weapons to continue this disastrous war would violate U.S. and international law,” Sanders said in a statement.

US President Joe Biden has faced calls from his fellow Democrats throughout Israel’s war on Gaza to press Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to ease the devastating humanitarian crisis in the besieged coastal enclave.

In his announcement, Sanders noted that the Biden administration last month approved arms sales to Israel totaling more than $20bn that included systems tied to tens of thousands of civilian deaths in Gaza.

He said exporting such weapons would violate human rights provisions in the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and Arms Export Control Act of 1976.

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.

Israel's Mass Murder Of Babies Exposed

State Department spokesperson brutally exposes own government’s complicity



US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller went from claiming no involvement in the pager blasts to calling targeting of Hezbollah members as legitimate. He, however, refused to answer a reporter’s question on whether Israeli settlers accused of breaking international laws should also be legitimate targets by others.

Live from the Senate Floor



Much of the carnage in Gaza has been carried out with US-provided military equipment. That's why I will introduce a resolution to block this $20 billion arms sale to Israel. We must end our complicity in the immoral & illegal war against Palestinians.

Netanyahu may be ‘going for a gigantic diversion’ with Lebanon war

Paul Rogers, from the University of Bradford and author of The Insecurity Trap, says it is clear Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu doesn’t want a ceasefire “in any form” with Hamas in Gaza or Hezbollah in Lebanon, with the US presidential election coming in November.

He highlighted the Israeli military losses and difficulties holding territory after the invasions of southern Lebanon in 1982 and 2006, noting the war on Gaza has yet to be won by Israel.

“What we’re seeing now is the Israelis trying to damage the overall psychology of Hezbollah by what they’re doing. But the thing one has to remember is Israel is highly unlikely to try to occupy southern Lebanon with a ground incursion – other than a very short probing attack,” Rogers told Al Jazeera.

“The war on Gaza is failing as far as the Israelis are concerned. They cannot actually get rid of Hamas, and any kind of presence where Hamas even exists there is unacceptable to them. They are in a major bind, and it very well may be the fundamental reason why Netanyahu is going for this phase of the war with Lebanon is a gigantic diversion.”

Palestinian Authority warns of ‘dangerous escalation’

The Palestinian Authority (PA) government denounced the deadly explosions in Lebanon and offered to help treat some of the thousands wounded in Palestinian hospitals and clinics inside Lebanon.

In a statement released by Palestinian news agency Wafa, the PA offered Lebanon’s cabinet its “deepest condolences”, adding that it stands with the Lebanese people.

It warned against the consequences of this “dangerous escalation” and called on the international community to take “urgent action to prevent the situation from exploding” in the region.

Hezbollah official says armed group now in a ‘new confrontation’

Hashem Safieddine, head of Hezbollah’s executive council, says the Lebanese group will respond to the mass attacks with “special punishment”.

The group is in a “new confrontation with the enemy” now, Safieddine said.

It remains unclear what will happen next with fears of a wider Middle East war and Israeli leaders pledging to halt nearly a year of Hezbollah attacks in the north in support of the Palestinians, as Israel’s devastating war on Gaza continues.

As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu huddled with top security officials at Israeli military headquarters in Tel Aviv, the country’s army chief, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, said plans have been drawn up for additional action against Hezbollah.

‘Israel is ready for war’: Troops drawn from Gaza to northern border

While the daily fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has escalated on several occasions, the bitter enemies have been careful to avoid an all-out war.

That appears to be changing – especially after pagers, walkie-talkies, solar equipment and other devices exploded in Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday, killing at least 20 and wounding thousands in a sophisticated attack Hezbollah blamed on Israel.

“You don’t do something like that, hit thousands of people, and think war is not coming,” said retired Israeli Brigadier-General Amir Avivi, who leads Israel Defence and Security Forum, a group of hawkish former military commanders.

“Why didn’t we do it for 11 months? Because we were not willing to go to war yet. What’s happening now? Israel is ready for war.”

The military also said it staged a series of war drills this week along the border. “The mission is clear,” said Major-General Ori Gordin, who heads Israel’s Northern Command. “We are determined to change the security reality as soon as possible.”

‘Mossad infiltrated the supply chain’

Analysts say Israeli operatives likely planted explosives into communication devices before they were delivered to Hezbollah.

“This was more than lithium batteries being forced into override,” said Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute.

“A small plastic explosive was almost certainly concealed alongside the battery for remote detonation via a call or page,” the analyst said, adding Israel’s spy agency “Mossad infiltrated the supply chain”.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib warned the “blatant assault on Lebanon’s sovereignty and security” was a dangerous development that could “signal a wider war”.

Amos Harel of Israel’s Haaretz newspaper said the pager and walkie-talkie blasts had put “Israel and Hezbollah on the brink of all-out war”.

‘Weaponising an object used by civilians is strictly prohibited’

While the pagers and walkie-talkies rigged to explode were used by Hezbollah members, there was no guarantee who was holding the device at the time it detonated.

Many of the casualties were not Hezbollah fighters but members of the group’s extensive civilian operations mainly serving Lebanon’s Shia community. At least two health workers were among those killed on Tuesday.

Doctors, nurses, paramedics, charity workers, teachers and office administrators work for Hezbollah-linked organisations, and an unknown number had pagers.

Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor of law and international peace studies at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, said booby traps are banned under international law. “Weaponising an object used by civilians is strictly prohibited,” she said.

The UN human rights chief, Volker Turk, called for an independent investigation into the mass explosions, saying, “the fear and terror unleashed is profound”.

In the village of Nabi Sheet in the Bekaa Valley, dozens gathered to mourn nine-year-old Fatima Abdullah, another victim of a pager blast. Her mother – wearing black and donning a yellow Hezbollah scarf – wept alongside other women and children as they gathered around the little girl’s coffin before her burial.