A new wave of explosions on Hezbollah's communications equipment devices killed 20 people and injured more than 450 across Lebanon on Wednesday, further adding to the atmosphere of concern about the outbreak of war with Israel, while a speech by the Shiite leader is expected today movement, which is close to Iran.
Hassan Nasrallah, who was not injured as a result of the explosions, according to an AFP source in his faction, is expected to speak today at 17:00 (local and Greek time) about the explosions that Hezbollah attributes to the Israeli intelligence services and were fatal for many of its executives.
Last night, the Lebanese Ministry of Health informed that "the wave of explosions caused by the enemy on walkie-talkies (…) killed 20 people and injured more than 450".
The new wave of explosions followed a series of previous attacks and the simultaneous announcement by the Israeli government that the goals of its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip have now expanded to include the return of tens of thousands of citizens who have been forced to flee their homes. in the north, on the border with Lebanon.
Without referring to the explosions in Lebanon, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallad said yesterday that the "center of gravity" of the war is moving "to the north", where deadly exchanges of fire with Hezbollah are practically daily, resulting in both fleeing sides of the border tens of thousands of inhabitants.https://x.com/runews/status/1836413304857608308?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1836413304857608308%7Ctwgr%5E17ba400f22d0a8d9e6602d66d5e8bf8707af7772%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.protothema.gr%2Fworld%2Farticle%2F1542101%2Flivanos-20-nekroi-kai-pano-apo-450-traumaties-sto-neo-kuma-ekrixeon-suskeuon-epikoinonias-simera-i-omilia-nasrala%2F
In Beirut, radios exploded simultaneously in southern suburbs yesterday as the funerals of four Hezbollah members who died the previous day in bomb blasts were taking place, an AFP source in the movement and first aid workers said.
The new explosions caused panic among those attending the funerals and many rushed for cover.
The day before yesterday, the simultaneous explosions of buzzers, a messaging system used by the Islamist movement, killed 12 people and injured between 2.750 and 2.800 others, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
From the day after the outbreak of the war in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah opened a front on the border, to support Hamas, as it emphasizes.
Israeli authorities have so far made absolutely no public comment on the explosions, which are in the headlines of the Israeli press.
According to Amos Harel of the center-left newspaper Haaretz, the blasts on the Lebanese movement's communications devices have now brought "Israel and Hezbollah to the brink of all-out war."
On the other hand, the head of Lebanese diplomacy, Abdullah Bou Hamib, assessed that these attacks foreshadow a wider war in the Middle East.
A Hezbollah source told AFP that "the buzzers that exploded belonged to a batch that was recently imported" by the movement and consisted of "1.000 devices."
Based on preliminary evidence from an investigation by Lebanese authorities, the devices were "programmed in advance to explode and contained explosive materials placed next to their batteries," a source in the Lebanese security forces said.
Charles Lister, an expert at the Middle East Institute, estimated via X that "the Mossad," Israel's spy agency, "interfered with the supply chain" of Hezbollah.
The Security Council has been called for an emergency meeting tomorrow, Friday, to discuss the series of explosions in Lebanon.
Outgoing European foreign policy chief Giuseppe Borrell yesterday condemned the "attacks" using booby traps, expressing his "great concern" at the situation. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was "dismayed" and called for further "escalation" to be avoided, while Washington also warned against any "escalation".
Hamas has accused Israel of being responsible for the new series of explosions in Lebanon, calling it a "threat" to regional stability.
Israel this week announced its decision to extend its war targets to the border with Lebanon, declaring it would guarantee its displaced citizens could return to their homes in the north.
The main declared goals of the war so far have been to completely destroy Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, and to return all remaining hostages to the Palestinian enclave.
"We will carry out our tasks simultaneously", both in the north and in the south, and "our task is clear: to guarantee the safe return of the inhabitants of the north to their homes", according to Defense Minister Gallant. His statements were more or less repeated, in separate positions, by both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Chief of the Israeli General Staff of the National Defense General Herzi Halevi.
Against this explosive background, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, on a visit to Cairo, called on the governments of Israel and Hamas to show the "political will" needed to conclude a ceasefire agreement, after months of deadlock in indirect negotiations. negotiations.
For their part, representatives of American, French, German, Italian and British diplomacy will meet later in the day in Paris to discuss negotiations aimed at concluding a cease-fire agreement in the Gaza Strip and to the situation in Lebanon, according to diplomatic sources of Agence France-Presse.
At the same time, the war continues in the small Palestinian enclave under siege, where the population is facing humanitarian disaster.
According to civil protection in the Gaza Strip, at least five people were killed yesterday in an Israeli airstrike against another school turned into a reception center for internally displaced persons, in a neighborhood in the eastern part of Gaza City (north).
The Israeli military confirmed the bombing, claiming that Hamas militants were using the school to "plan and carry out terrorist activities".
Yesterday the Canadian government announced new sanctions to "combat the terrorist activities" of Hamas and its "funding rings", as well as against "extremist" Israeli settlers who have committed "violent acts" against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank.
The trigger for this war, now in its 349th day, was the unprecedented raid launched by Hamas' military arm in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, during which 1.205 people, mostly civilians, were killed on the Israeli side. , according to an AFP tally based on official data from Israeli authorities and including hostages killed while being held hostage.
Of the 251 people abducted during the attack, 97 remain in the hands of Palestinian militants in Gaza, but 33 have been declared dead by the Israeli military.
More than 41.272 Palestinians have since died in large-scale Israeli military retaliatory operations in the Gaza Strip, most of them civilians, according to the latest figures from the Hamas government's health ministry, which are considered reliable by the UN.
Source: protothema.gr