An ambulance arrives at a hospital as more than 1,000 people, including Hezbollah fighters and medics, were wounded on September 17, 2024, when the pagers they use to communicate exploded across Lebanon, according to a security source, in Beirut, Lebanon.
| Photo Credit:
Reuters
Dozens of people, including Iran’s ambassador, were wounded in Beirut’s suburbs and other parts of Lebanon after their handheld pagers exploded today (September 17, 2024), according to media reports and security officials. It wasn’t immediately clear if people were killed.
A senior military intelligence official and an official with a Lebanese group with knowledge of the situation, both of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said that pagers carried by Hezbollah members were detonated. The second official said it was believed to be an Israeli attack.
Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency, close to the country’s powerful Revolutionary Guard, said on its Telegram channel that Mojtaba Amani, Iran’s ambassador in Lebanon, has a superficial injury and is under observation at a hospital.
Meanwhile, another semi-official Mehr news agency, also on its Telegram channel reported that Amani was wounded by a pager explosion.
Photos and videos from Beirut’s southern suburbs circulating on social media and in local media showed people lying on the pavement with wounds on their hands or near their pants pockets.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah previously warned the group’s members not to carry cellphones, saying that they could be used by Israel to track their movements and to carry out targeted strikes.
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