Hezbollah vows to exact revenge against Israel after explosive pager bomb attack in Lebanon and Syria which killed at least nine people and left thousands wounded

The hundreds of pagers (not pictured) that exploded on Tuesday in Lebanon and Syria had apparently been acquired by the militant group Hezbollah after the group’s leader ordered members in February to stop using mobile phones, warning they could be tracked by Israeli intelligence.

The pagers exploded simultaneously, killing at least nine people, including members of Hezbollah, and wounding more than 2,000, including the Iranian ambassador

A Hezbollah official told the Associated Press the pagers were a new brand, but declined to say how long they had been in use.

Taiwanese company Gold Apollo said it authorised its brand on the pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria, but they were manufactured by a company based in Budapest.

The AR-924 pagers were manufactured by BAC Consulting KFT, based in Hungary’s capital, according to a statement by Gold Apollo.

It said: “According to the co-operation 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.”

Gold Apollo chairman Hsu Ching-kuang told journalists on Wednesday that his company has had a licensing agreement with BAC for the past three years, but did not provide evidence of the contract.

The AR-924 pager, advertised as being “rugged”, contains a rechargeable lithium battery, according to specifications once advertised on Gold Apollo’s website before it was apparently taken down on Tuesday.

It could receive text messages of up to 100 characters.

A pager bomb attack that left roughly 2,800 Hezbollah members and civilians injured and nine dead in Lebanon and Syria yesterday was authored by Israel’s Mossad spy agency and the IDF, several security sources claim.

The Lebanese group earlier this year ordered thousands of pagers to conduct communications after leader Hassan Nasrallah declared smartphones would be more susceptible to cyber attacks by Israeli forces.

Israeli military and intelligence personnel managed to access 5,000 pagers, produced in Budapest by BAC Consulting KFT, ‘at the production level’ and insert a small amount of high explosives months before they were imported to Lebanon, according to several security sources who spoke to Reuters.

This graphic produced for the Daily Mail newspaper shows how the pager bomb attack was carried out in Lebanon yesterday.

Israeli security services and its military are said to have filled the hand-held ordered by Hezbollah with one or two ounces of explosive material along with a detonating switch prior to their delivery.

A Hezbollah official said the new pagers that its members were carrying had lithium batteries.

Lithium batteries, when overheated, can smoke, melt and even catch on fire.

Rechargeable lithium batteries are used in consumer products ranging from phones and laptops to electric cars. Lithium battery fires can burn up to 590C.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah (pictured) will give a speech on Thursday, the group said in a statement on Wednesday.

Nasrallah is credited as one of the most powerful Shia figures in the Middle East who has left a lasting impact on Lebanon and its role in the Arab-Israel conflict.

Under his stewardship, Hezbollah has grown from a local armed movement to the largest political party in Lebanon’s recent history.

In 2018, Hezbollah won ore than 340,000 preferential votes, the most for any party in Lebanon since the country’s independence in 1943

In October 2021, Nasrallah said Hezbollah had 100,000 fighters, making it among the most powerful non-national armed organisations worldwide.

The incident comes at a time of heightened tensions between Lebanon and Israel.

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israeli forces have been clashing near-daily for more than 11 months against the backdrop of war between Israel and Hezbollah’s ally Hamas in Gaza.

The clashes have killed hundreds in Lebanon and dozens in Israel and displaced tens of thousands on both sides of the border.

On Tuesday, Israel said that halting Hezbollah’s attacks in the north to allow residents to return to their homes is now an official war goal.

Israel has killed Hamas militants in the past with booby trapped cellphones and it’s widely believed to have been behind the Stuxnet computer virus attack on Iran’s nuclear programme in 2010.

Both Hezbollah and Lebanon’s government have squarely blamed Israel for the attack. Though Israel has not yet commented on the matter, allies including the United States sought to distance themselves from the attack.

Hezbollah said in a statement:

‘We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression,’ adding that Israel ‘will certainly receive its just punishment for this sinful aggression’.

In a second statement, the terror group added

After examining all the facts, current data, and available information about the sinful attack that took place this afternoon, we hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression that targeted civilians too.

Prominent Hezbollah politician Ali Ammar spoke to the Associated Press after his son, Mahdi, was killed.

This is a new Israeli aggression against Lebanon. The resistance will retaliate in a suitable way at the suitable time.

Lebanon’s prime minister Najib Mikati condemned ‘criminal Israeli aggression’ and called the attack ‘a serious violation of Lebanese sovereignty’.

Here’s a quick rundown of the attacks carried out on Hezbollah terrorists yesterday:

• More than 300 people were rushed to hospital in a critical condition after pagers used by proscribed terror group Hezbollah detonated over a period of an hour yesterday afternoon.
• The detonators activated at around 3.30pm local time (1.45pm UK time) on Tuesday after receiving a message that purported to be from Hezbollah’s top brass.
• Widespread panic and chaotic scenes were seen across Beirut’s southern suburbs, the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon, while in neighbouring Syria 14 people were injured by the blasts, according to Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
• Victims were seen writhing in agony with hideous injuries to their faces, abdomens and even their groins in harrowing images and videos shared to social media and published on Lebanese networks.
• Among those reportedly killed were two girls, aged eight aged eight and ten, and the son of a Lebanese MP. Iran said its ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, also sustained injuries to his face and hand.
• Both Hezbollah and Lebanon’s government have squarely blamed Israel for the attack. Though Israel has not yet commented on the matter, allies including the United States sought to distance themselves from the attack.

Firstly, let’s bring you our current top story on the MailOnline website which reports Israel was involved in the deadly pager bomb attack

by Perkin Amalaraj and Sam Greenhill

Israeli spies were behind the pager bomb attack that killed nine, including two young girls, and left more than 2,750 people wounded across Lebanon.

The New York Times reported that Hezbollah’s pagers were compromised in a joint operation between Mossad, Israel’s shadowy intelligence agency, and the IDF.

The security service and military are said to have filled the pagers ordered by Hezbollah with one or two ounces of explosive material along with a detonating switch prior to their delivery.

Hello and welcome to MailOnline’s live coverage of the pager bomb attack which targeted Hezbollah terrorists across Lebanon and Syria.

At least nine people were killed and 2,750 wounded, 300 critically, following a series of detonations of the hand-held devices on Tuesday afternoon.

Hezbollah immediately blamed Israel and vowed to exact revenge while the New York Times reported the pagers (pictured above) were compromised in a joint operation between Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, and the IDF.

We will bring you all the developments and reaction throughout the day as tensions between Israel and Hezbollah threaten to intensify further as both sides edge closer to war.