Gaza live: Hezbollah radios explode in Beirut and south Lebanon

Middle East Eye journalist Nader Durgham is in Beirut's southern suburbs, an area known as Dahiyeh, and says the roads are choked with cars fleeing the district after the sounds of explosions.

Many of those at the scene had gathered for a mass funeral for the Hezbollah members killed in yesterday's attack.

The sounds of ambulances are non stop, reports Durgham, who also saw a fire truck responding to the scene.

“I am now just going to see if my family is okay,” a man who escaped the funeral told Durgham, explaining that his relatives live in a building where Hezbollah members often gather.

Dahiyeh is a large area where Hezbollah supporters and members live.

“Dude, throw away that device of yours!” Durgham overheard one man say to another. 

Reuters is reporting that hand-held radios used by members of Hezbollah exploded in Beirut and elsewhere in Lebanon, causing the booms heard at the funeral.

A security source told the news agency the radios were aquired by the Lebanese movement around five months ago, the same as the pagers.

Those responsible for Tuesday’s explosions across Lebanon targeting paging devices used by members of Hezbollah “must be held to account,” the UN rights chief Volker Turk said Wednesday.

“Simultaneous targeting of thousands of individuals, whether civilians or members of armed groups, without knowledge as to who was in possession of the targeted devices, their location and their surroundings at the time of the attack, violates international human rights law and, to the extent applicable, international humanitarian law,” Turk said in a statement published by AFP.

The sound of at least one boom similar to those heard when pagers exploded yesterday has rung out over southern Beirut, dispersing fearful mourners at a Hezbollah funeral.

A Middle East Eye reporter at the scene heard the loud noise and said Lebanese that had gathered at the funeral, which was heavily secured by Hezbollah, were hurriedly leaving the scene.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty on Wednesday said that Cairo will not accept changes to the "rules of operation" in the Philadelphi Corridor that were in place before 7 October, particularly regarding the rules governing the operation of the Rafah crossing on the Palestinian side.

During a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Abdelatty emphasised Egypt's complete rejection of any military presence on the other side of the crossing or in the corridor, which is the narrow strip of land over the entire 14 km border between Egypt and Gaza.

Abdelatty added: "We cannot hold the future of stability in a vital region like the Middle East hostage to the absence of political will on the part of some parties. Therefore, we will continue our efforts to exert influence and pressure until we can reach an agreement that ensures stability in the region."

Egypt's Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty on Wednesday said that his government deals with Hamas as "a political national Palestinian faction", and that Hamas is "committed beyond doubt" to the terms of the ceasefire proposals of 27 May and 2 July.

In his jont press confrence with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Cairo, Abdelatty said that the pager explosions that took place in Lebanon on Tuesday and which Hezbollah has blamed on Israel are yet another blow to ceasefire efforts.

"Any escalation including what happened yesterday, certainly curtails and adds a stumbling block to efforts of a ceasefire and freeing the hostages," he said. 

"The attack does not only obstruct ceasefire efforts, it also threatens the region with a fullscale war. This is very serious. That is why unilateral policies, and the policies of assasinations must stop," he added. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday met with his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty in Cairo to discuss stalled efforts for a ceasefire agreement mediated by Washington, Cairo and Doha.

"We discussed the importance of getting this deal across the finish line, something we'll continue to pursue with our Qatari counterparts," Blinken said in his joint press conference with Abdelatty, in Blinken's 10th trip to the region since the 7 October attack and subsequent Israeli onslaught on Gaza.

"We all know that a ceasefire is the best chance to tackle the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, to address risks to regional stability," he added, as quoted by AFP.

He also denied US knowledge of the pager attack against Hezbollah in Lebanon on Tuesday. 

"With regard to Lebanon, the United States did not know about, nor was it involved in these incidents, and we're still gathering information and gathering the facts," he said.

"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."

The Egyptian presidency said following the press conference that the two sides held talks on "ways to intensify joint efforts between Egypt, the US and Qatar to make progress on ceasefire negotiations and the exchange of hostages and detainees".

The president's office called for "decisive intervention to remove obstacles to the entry of huge amounts of aid" to Gaza and "ending Israeli violations in the West Bank".

A Palestinian doctor abducted by Israeli forces from Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital has died in their custody, the Palestinian health ministry said on Wednesday. 

Ziad Mohammed al-Dalou, an internal medicine physician, is the third doctor to die in Israeli jails, where widespread torture has killed at least 60 Palestinian prisoners over the past 11 months. 

Dalou was detained on 18 March from al-Shifa Hospital, along with dozens of other health workers, when Israeli forces raided the facility in a two-week-long assault. 

The deadly raid decimated the hospital, which had been the largest and most equipped medical facility in the Gaza Strip. After the Israeli forces withdrew, dozens of bodies were found buried in mass graves in the hospital’s courtyards.

According to the Palestinian health ministry, Dalou was detained while performing his duties at the hospital. 

Read more: Gaza: Doctor dies in Israeli custody after being abducted from al-Shifa Hospital, officials say

At least 12 people were killed and nearly 3,000 injured on Tuesday when pagers commonly used for communication by Hezbollah members exploded almost simultaneously across Lebanon.

The details of how this highly sophisticated attack was carried out remain unclear, though Hezbollah has blamed its adversary, Israel. The Israeli military has so far declined to comment.

Here is what we know so far.

Read more: Lebanon deadly pager blasts: What we know so far

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell voiced concern over the civilian casualties from the recent pager explosions in Lebanon, saying: “Even if the attacks were seemingly targeted, they caused severe and indiscriminate collateral damage, with civilians, including children, among the victims.”

Borrell emphasised the seriousness of the situation, adding: "I find this deeply troubling. I strongly condemn these attacks, which threaten Lebanon’s security and stability and increase the risk of regional escalation."

He also reaffirmed the EU's commitment to preventing a full-scale war, warning that such a conflict would have "serious consequences for the region and beyond".

An Israeli air strike targeted a school sheltering displaced civilians in Shujaiya, a neighbourhood in the east of Gaza City, killing and injuring eight people, according to Al Jazeera. 

The school was one of many locations where civilians had taken refuge amid the ongoing violence in the region.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned Tuesday's Israeli-backed pager explosions in Lebanon, describing them as "another act of hybrid warfare" that targeted thousands of innocent civilians. 

In a statement, Zakharova said: “It appears that the organisers of this high-tech attack deliberately sought to foment a large-scale armed confrontation in order to provoke a major war in the Middle East.”

The ministry had earlier called for an investigation into the incident.

Over a dozen British NGOs have called on the UK government to vote in favour of a UN resolution supporting the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion made earlier this year.

The resolution calls for the implementation of the court’s opinion, including ending Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territory and the suspension of weapons transfers to Israel.

The 15 NGOs which work in and on the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel urged the UK to support the resolution and demand “concrete measures to uphold international law, especially in implementing accountability for ongoing violations in Gaza and the West Bank”.

The groups also urged the UK to immediately implement all of the obligations set out in the court’s opinion, including ensuring the UK is not aiding or assisting Israel to maintain its illegal presence in the occupied Palestinian territory and to suspend all UK arms exports to Israel.

A vote is expected in the UN General Assembly on Wednesday afternoon in New York.

Lebanon's Ministry of Health releases official figures from Monday's Israeli attack:

• Between 2,750-2,800 people were wounded
• 1,850 were wounded in Beirut
• 750 in south Lebanon
• 130 in the Bekaa governorate
• 12 killed, including an eight-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy

Two Palestinians were killed and several others injured in an Israeli bombardment that hit a civilian car in al-Mawasi area, west of Rafah, Al Jazeera reported.