A second wave of device explosions killed at least 20 people and wounded hundreds more in Lebanon, officials said on September 18, stoking fears of an all-out war in the region.
A security source and a witness said Hizballah, which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, said walkie-talkies used by its members blew up in its Beirut stronghold. State media reported similar blasts in southern and eastern Lebanon.
At least one of the blasts took place near a funeral for people killed the previous day when thousands of pagers used by the group exploded. The number of dead in those attacks was 12, with more than 2,700 people wounded, including many Hizballah fighters.
The Lebanese Health Ministry described the devices targeted in the September 18 attack as walkie-talkies. Late on September 18, it revised the number of dead from 14 to 20 in a statement that also said more than 450 were wounded.
Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and the EU, accused Israel of being behind the latest blasts, saying the action threatened stability in the region.
SEE ALSO: Did A Budapest-Based Company Make Pagers Used In Attack On Hizballah In Lebanon?Hizballah and the Lebanese government also blamed Israel for what appeared to be a sophisticated remote attack. Israel, which has not commented, announced prior to the September 17 attack that it was broadening the aims of its war in Gaza against Hamas to include Hizballah, Hamas’s ally in Lebanon.
Speaking to Israeli troops on September 18, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said: “We are at the start of a new phase in the war -- it requires courage, determination and perseverance.” He made no mention of the exploding devices but praised the work of Israel’s army and security agencies, saying “the results are very impressive.”
Hizballah said on September 18 that it attacked Israeli artillery positions with rockets in the first strike since the pager blasts.
The White House warned all sides against escalation.
"We don't believe that the way to solve where we're at in this crisis is by additional military operations at all," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
"We still believe that the best way to prevent escalation, to prevent another front from opening up in Lebanon, is through diplomacy," Kirby said.
Human Rights Watch's former executive director, Kenneth Roth, commented on the attacks on X, saying that international humanitarian law prohibits the use of booby traps -- objects that civilians are likely to use -- "precisely to avoid putting civilians at grave risk."
The Iranian envoy to the United Nations said in a letter that Tehran will follow up on the pager detonation attack in which its ambassador to Lebanon was injured. It added that it "reserves its rights under international law to take required measures deemed necessary to respond."
The pagers were reportedly ordered from Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo, which said they had been produced by BAC Consulting in Hungary and had no parts that could be related to Gold Apollo.
“According to the cooperation agreement, we authorize 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,” the statement said.
The Taiwanese company also described BAC Consulting's payment method from a Middle Eastern bank account as strange.
A Hungarian government spokesman said the company was "a trading intermediary, with no manufacturing or operational site in Hungary."
BAC Consulting was registered as a limited liability company in May 2022, the Associated Press reported. It is a one-person business registered to its owner, Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono, who describes herself on the social media platform LinkedIn as a strategic adviser and business developer.
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How Have Hizballah's Devices Put It At Risk?
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated that the United States knew nothing about the attacks.
"We’re still gathering the information and gathering the facts," Blinken said at a news conference in Cairo. "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 to see it spread to other fronts."
The UN Security Council will meet on September 20 to discuss the pager blasts, said Slovenia's UN Ambassador Samuel Zbogar, president of the 15-member council for September.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned earlier on September 18 that the pager blasts indicate "a serious risk of a dramatic escalation in Lebanon and everything must be done to avoid that escalation."
"Obviously the logic of making all these devices explode is to do it as a preemptive strike before a major military operation," he told reporters in New York.
He also said that it was very important not to weaponize civilian objects.
Guterres "urges all concerned actors to exercise maximum restraint to avert any further escalation," said Guterres spokesman Stephane Dujarric in a statement.