Exploding pagers injure hundreds in Lebanon: Health Minister

Dozens injured in Lebanon as pagers explode, Hezbollah members reportedly targeted, no deaths reported.

Hundreds of people were injured across Lebanon when their pagers exploded Tuesday (September 17, 2024), Health Minister Firass Abiad said, with a source close to Hezbollah saying its members were targeted.

The source close to Hezbollah said a large number of the Iran-backed movement's members had been injured in the near-simultaneous incidents, but that no deaths had been reported.

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.

The Associated Press reached out to the Israeli military, which declined to comment.

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.