What happened
At least 20 people were killed in Lebanon Wednesday and more than 450 injured after Hezbollah-issued walkie-talkies detonated, the government said. Lebanon was still reeling from thousands of exploding Hezbollah pagers that killed 12 people, including two young children, and wounded about 2,800 on Tuesday. The sophisticated remote blasts were widely attributed to Israel, which hasn't confirmed or denied its involvement.
Who said what
The scale of the sabotage "deeply unsettled" Hezbollah, The Wall Street Journal said. The explosions maimed hundreds of its fighters, revealed serious security breaches and "exposed the identities of thousands of Hezbollah operatives, many of whom worked covertly — a coup for Israeli intelligence and a likely surprise for some Hezbollah members' relatives and neighbors."
The explosives-laced pagers, from an Israeli intelligence front company in Hungary, "began shipping to Lebanon in the summer of 2022 in small numbers," The New York Times said, citing 12 officials briefed on the operation. Production ramped up after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah ordered militants to ditch their phones and carry the low-tech communication devices in February. The exploding walkie-talkies had "new batteries that arrived in a recent shipment" and were "distributed to a narrower range of Hezbollah members," the Journal said.
The "potentially indiscriminate casualties" from exploding handheld devices in homes, shops, cars, cafes — "where the holder of the pager happened to be" — raised concerns, The Associated Press said. "Weaponizing an object used by civilians is strictly prohibited" under international law, said Mary Ellen O'Connell, a law professor at Notre Dame, to the outlet.
What next?
Nasrallah was expected to deliver a major speech today. The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to meet Friday to discuss the pager blasts, at Algeria's request.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
The controversial Free Birth SocietyThe Explainer Influencers are encouraging pregnant women to give birth without midwife care – at potentially tragic cost
-
Wes Anderson: The Archives – ‘quirkfest’ celebrates the director’s ‘impeccable craft’The Week Recommends Retrospective at the Design Museum showcases 700 props, costumes and set designs from the filmmaker’s three-decade career
-
Is conscription the answer to Europe’s security woes?Today's Big Question How best to boost troop numbers to deal with Russian threat is ‘prompting fierce and soul-searching debates’
-
Trump’s Ukraine peace talks advance amid leaked callSpeed Read Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff is set to visit Russia next week
-
Memo signals Trump review of 233k refugeesSpeed Read The memo also ordered all green card applications for the refugees to be halted
-
Pentagon targets Kelly over ‘illegal orders’ videoSpeed Read The Pentagon threatened to recall Kelly to active duty
-
Judge tosses Trump DOJ cases against Comey, JamesSpeed Read Both cases could potentially be brought again
-
American antisemitismFeature The world’s oldest hatred is on the rise in U.S. Why?
-
US, Kyiv report progress on shifting Ukraine peace planSpeed Read The deal ‘must fully uphold Ukraine’s sovereignty,’ the countries said
-
Comey grand jury never saw final indictmentSpeed Read This ‘drove home just how slapdash’ the case is, said The New York Times
-
Summers out at Harvard, OpenAI amid Epstein furorSpeed Read Summers was part of a group being investigated by Harvard for Epstein ties
