A Hezbollah official who spoke on condition of anonymity told The Associated Press that new models of pagers used by the group first heated up and then exploded.
The attack, it seems, was carried out by sophisticated sending of "malware" (malicious software) to the attacked pagers, reports Beta.
AP photographers said hospitals were overwhelmed with patients, many with limb injuries and some in critical condition.
The state-run National News Agency said hospitals in southern Lebanon, the eastern Bekaa Valley and the southern suburbs of Beirut - all areas where Hezbollah has a strong presence - had urged people to donate blood for the wounded.
The agency reported that in the southern suburbs of Beirut and other areas, "a 'pager' system was detonated using advanced technology and dozens of injuries were reported."
A Hezbollah official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the blasts were the result of a "security operation targeting those devices" and that Israel was the perpetrator.
He added that the new pagers worn by Hezbollah members had lithium batteries that apparently exploded, Beta reports.
Lithium batteries, when overheated, can smoke, melt and catch fire.
Rechargeable lithium batteries are used in consumer products ranging from cell phones and laptops to electric cars.
And the militant group Hezbollah blamed Israel for the pager blasts. In its statement, Hezbollah said that Israel would face "just punishment".
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was not injured in the explosions, said a source close to the militant movement.
Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that a pager explosion also occurred in Syria, where several members of Hezbollah were taken to hospital, and Saberin News, a media outlet close to Iran's Revolutionary Guard, reports that seven people died.
The spokesman of the Lebanese government said that the government sees Israel as responsible for the pager explosions, and considers it a violation of Lebanese sovereignty, Aksios journalist Barak Ravid reports.
Reuters reporter Timur Azharai reported that Lebanon's information minister also condemned what he characterized as Israeli aggression.
Lebanon's health minister said eight people were killed and 2.750 injured in pager detonations across the country, Reuters reports.
Hezbollah said three people were killed in pager explosions in Lebanon. Two Hezbollah fighters and a girl were killed in a series of simultaneous pager detonations, the group said.
In a statement, Hezbollah did not directly accuse Israel of the operation.
"At approximately 15:30 on Tuesday, 17.09.2024/XNUMX/XNUMX, several messaging devices known as 'pagers' exploded. These pagers belonged to workers in various units and institutions of Hezbollah. The causes of these explosions, which are still unknown, led to the martyrdom of one girl and two brothers, as well as to the injury of a large number of people," Hezbollah said, reports Al Jazeera.
The 10-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member was killed when his pager exploded today, family members told AFP.
Lebanese media also reported that the son of Hezbollah MP Ali Amar was killed.
More than a thousand, including Hezbollah fighters and medical personnel, were injured when pagers they use to communicate exploded across Lebanon, security sources in the country told Reuters.
This figure is far higher than the hundreds of injuries that were estimated in the first reports.
Two security sources told Reuters that the son of a Hezbollah deputy who was a fighter of the movement was killed in the explosions.
Lebanon's Health Minister Firas Abijad said several hundred people were injured across Lebanon when their pagers exploded earlier today, while a source close to Hezbollah told AFP its members were targeted. No deaths have been reported.
Iran's ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, is among those injured.
A Hezbollah official told Reuters the detonation of the pager was the group's biggest security lapse in the nearly year-long war with Israel.
A Reuters reporter saw emergency services rushing through the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut, while residents testified that detonations could be heard even 30 minutes after the first explosions.
Since October, Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group backed by Iran, has carried out attacks on Israeli targets, saying they stand in solidarity with Palestinians affected by Israel's war on Gaza.
Regional broadcasters today showed footage from CCTV cameras showing a small portable device placed next to a cash register in a store spontaneously exploding while someone was paying. In other footage, it appears as if the explosion hit a person standing at a fruit stand in the market.
Lebanon's Crisis Operations Center has asked all medical workers to head to their hospitals to help deal with the large number of injured people coming to the emergency room. They said that health workers should not be using pagers.
Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, mediated by Egypt and the US, were "ongoing".
Recent mediations in Doha and Cairo are based on a framework laid out by US President Joe Biden in May and a proposal presented to Hamas and Israel in August. The May proposal included a permanent ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza in exchange for the release of all hostages and long-term reconstruction of the devastated coastal area, the Guardian reports.
"Efforts are still ongoing and channels of communication are open... visits and meetings are continuing," Majed Al Ansari, a spokesman for Qatar's foreign ministry, told reporters.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken would visit Egypt this week to "discuss ongoing efforts to achieve a ceasefire", marking his tenth trip to the region since October, the US State Department said.
Pressure inside Israel to reach a deal intensified after the bodies of six hostages were found in a tunnel in Gaza.
However, despite outside calls for a deal, both Israel and Hamas have publicly signaled a deepening of their negotiating positions.
The main problem in the negotiations is the Philadelphia corridor along the Gaza border with Egypt and the Netzarim corridor from east to west across the territory. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has argued that Israel needs to maintain control of the corridors to prevent smuggling and capture militants. Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, however, is demanding a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
The news agency Reuters learned from a source that dozens of Hezbollah members were injured today in the south of Lebanon and in the southern suburbs of Beirut, when the pagers they use for communication exploded.
A Reuters reporter saw 10 Hezbollah members bleeding in a southern suburb of Beirut known as Dahiyeh.
The Palestinian News Agency reports that Israeli security forces demolished two houses owned by Palestinians in the village of Hirbet Jabara, south of the city of Tulkarem, in the West Bank territory under Israeli occupation.
One of the owners whose house was destroyed, Muhammad Jabara, said he was unable to remove the family's belongings from the house before Israeli forces demolished the building.
The Israeli army announced on its official Telegram channel that a certain number of drones that crossed from Lebanon to Israeli territory had been identified.
"Some of the aircraft were intercepted, while others fell in the area near Ramot Naftali. No injuries were reported," the statement said.
Sirens sounded in northern Israel due to the possibility of shrapnel falling from the intercept, it added.
Al Jazeera reports that its verification team has determined, through satellite images, that Israel has completely destroyed nine UN-run schools in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, while three other schools, which were sheltering displaced civilians, were partially destroyed.
Benjamin Netanyahu's government has banned Al Jazeera from operating inside Israel.
Israel's Shin Beit security agency has revealed that it foiled a plan by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah to assassinate a former senior defense official in the coming days, Reuters reports. The official's name has not been released.
The Shin Bet agency said it had seized an explosive device connected to a remote activation system, which included a mobile phone and camera, which Hezbollah planned to activate from Lebanon, the Guardian reports.
The Shin Bet said the attempted attack was similar to a Hezbollah plot foiled in Tel Aviv a year ago, but did not provide further details.
Since October 7, 2023, there has been an almost daily exchange of fire across the border between Israel and Lebanon, after Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, attacked Israeli communities and military bases, killing around 1.200 people and kidnapping around 250 hostages.
The Israel Business Forum called on Netanyahu to keep Galant as defense minister, warning that the removal would lead to further divisions and weaken the country.
The forum, made up of 200 leaders of Israel's biggest companies that employ many private sector workers, told Netanyahu to stop playing petty political games in a time of war.
"Immediately stop the process of removing Galant. The removal of the minister weakens Israel in the eyes of its enemies and will further deepen the divisions among the people of Israel... The prime minister knows better than anyone that all economic indicators also indicate that Israel is falling into an economic abyss and sinking into a deep recession. The last thing Israel needs at this moment is the dismissal of the defense minister - which will further shake the country," said the Forum.
Netanyahu denied that he was in talks with Sara to replace Galant. Rumors that Netanyahu wants to replace Galant in the reconstructed government have been circulating for months, but they have intensified recently, the Guardian reports.
In March 2023, Netanyahu fired Galant after he broke off cooperation with the government and called for the suspension of a highly contested plan to reform the judicial system. This caused mass protests, after which Netanyahu retracted his decision.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkiyan said Tehran has so far shown restraint in its response to Israel's killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh because he believes Israel is trying to drag it into a regional war.
Pezeshkiyan, a reformist who was unexpectedly elected three months ago, spoke at a wide-ranging press conference that lasted two and a half hours, at which almost half of the questions were asked by foreign media.
"What Israel did in the region and what it tried to do with the assassination of Ismail Haniya in Iran was to drag us into a regional war. So far we have shown restraint, but we reserve the right to defend ourselves at a precise time and place, in a precise manner ", the Iranian president told reporters, reports the Guardian.
Over 11.000 students were killed in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Authority said. Ministry of Education.
The ministry announced that 11.001 students - from schools and universities - have been killed and 17.772 wounded in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank since October 7, 2023.
Gaza death toll reaches 41.252, health ministry says At least 41.252 Palestinians have been killed and 95.497 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, according to Gaza's health ministry.
Israeli forces have arrested 30 Palestinians, including a child and ex-prisoners, in the past 24 hours in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Prisoners' Association and the Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees.
It is estimated that the total number of Palestinians arrested in the occupied West Bank as of October 7, 2023 has risen to over 10.700.
Human rights groups and international organizations allege widespread abuse of prisoners held by Israel in raids in the occupied West Bank, which Palestinians see as the core of a future independent state, along with Gaza.
There are reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering firing Defense Minister Yoav Galant, the Guardian reports.
Leading Israeli television channels and news sites report that Netanyahu, under pressure from right-wing coalition partners, is considering the dismissal of Galant. Former ally and current rival, Gideon Sar, who is a member of the opposition, is mentioned as his replacement.
Netanyahu rejected calls by Galant and others to accept the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the southern border of the Gaza Strip as the price for a ceasefire deal with Hamas. Galant, whom Netanyahu tried to oust last year, openly expressed his disdain for Netanyahu's constant insistence that the goal in Gaza is "total victory", which the defense minister called nonsense.
"Instead of the prime minister dealing with defeating Hamas, returning hostages, war against Hezbollah and allowing (evacuated) northerners to return to their homes, he is dealing with nefarious political deals and replacing the defense minister," wrote Benny Gantz, leader of the National Unity Party. center-right and Netanyahu's main political rival, on social networks.
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