Outrage Erupts After Explosions Rock Hezbollah Burial Site

At the scene of a burial for three Hezbollah members and a toddler murdered by bursting pagers the day before, walkie-talkies, solar equipment, and other gadgets detonated abruptly on Wednesday, according to Associated Press journalists. At least one of Wednesday’s explosions happened close to a funeral for those slain the day before, which Iran-backed Hezbollah organized. The previous day, thousands of the group’s pagers burst around the nation, wounding numerous combatants.

In the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Reuters reporter reported witnessing Hezbollah fighters hurriedly removing the batteries from any walkie-talkies they had that had not detonated and discarding the parts in metal barrels.

According to Lebanon’s health ministry, 300 people were injured, and at least nine people died.

The Lebanese government and Hezbollah are accusing Israel of being behind Tuesday’s bombing. As is customary with its declarations, Hezbollah claimed that 11 of its members were slain on Tuesday, although it did not elaborate on how they perished.

Regarding the pager explosions, Hezbollah said in a statement on Tuesday, “We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression, which led to the deaths of a number of martyrs and the injury of a large number with various wounds,”

Regarding its purported role in the apparent attack that caused havoc in Hezbollah’s stronghold in south Lebanon and the capital Beirut, Israel has remained silent.

According to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health, some 100 hospitals admitted injured patients, with hospitals in Beirut and its southern suburbs rapidly reaching capacity. Patients were then sent to hospitals outside the area.

According to Iranian state TV, Mojtaba Amani, the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, was hurt in an explosion on Tuesday along with other individuals who possessed pagers. Iranian state T.V. reported that the envoy claimed to be “feeling well and fully conscious” during a phone conversation.

Israel was denounced as “criminal Israeli aggression” by the Lebanese government, and Hezbollah vowed to strike back.

Hezbollah promised Israel a “reckoning” for the “massacre on Tuesday” and declared that it will continue to “support Gaza” in a statement released early on Wednesday morning.

There were non-Hezbollah members among the dead and injured. A two-year-old kid and an eight-year-old girl are among the deceased, according to Lebanese officials.

A statement issued by the U.N. Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General condemned the attack on Lebanon and described it as a “very concerning escalation in what is an already unacceptably volatile context.” The special coordinator for Lebanon is a representative of the United Nations.

At a news conference in Egypt on Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that the United States “did not know about and was not involved” in Israel’s pager assaults in Lebanon and Syria. However, he added that information was still being gathered and that Israel was not explicitly blamed.

“Broadly speaking, we’ve been very clear, and we remain very clear about the importance of all parties avoiding any steps that could further escalate the conflict that we’re trying to resolve in Gaza,” Blinken stated. He said expanding it to other fronts is “clearly not in the interest of anyone involved.”

In addition, Blinken said that a cease-fire agreement in Gaza would “materially improve the prospects of defusing the situation” at the Israeli-Lebanese border and enable thousands of residents on both sides of the separation to return home.

Both the European Union and the United States have classified the militant group Hezbollah as a foreign terrorist organization.