Lebanon: Israel, US inaction blamed for mass pager explosions after warning against escalation
In what seemed like a coordinated attack straight out of a Hollywood production, simultaneously exploding pagers on Tuesday afternoon seriously wounded members of the Lebanese group Hezbollah - along with some medics - from southern Lebanon to its east, and in the capital Beirut.
Hezbollah said this is the biggest security breach it has experienced to date, and it is vowing to punish Israel. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the pager attack, and historically, it does not claim attacks on foreign soil.
The attack comes one day after the Biden administration’s envoy to the region, Amos Hochstein, met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to caution him against opening up a wider front with Hezbollah along Israel’s northern border.
The exchange of fire between the two parties has thus far been limited to the border region, save for Israel’s assassination of a senior Hamas leader further inland early this year.
Analysts told Middle East Eye that they place the blame squarely on the Biden administration for not reigning in Israel throughout the last 11 months of its war on Gaza.
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“I think Hochstein was sent over there because [Washington] must have had some indication that Israel was thinking about this,” former Reagan administration defence official Lawrence Korb told Middle East Eye.
“Israel has a lot of weapons at its disposal, even [so that] it can get into Beirut. In other words, you ought to think twice about escalating with Israel, because this is just an opening salvo,” he added.
Speaking during a press briefing on Tuesday, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller categorically denied US knowledge of the attack.
“The US was not involved in it. The US was not aware of this incident in advance, and at this point, we're gathering information,” he said.
“If you look at what a military conflict would entail, it's hard to see how that gets those families on either side of their border back to their homes quickly. So that's why we continue to push both sides. We continue to push for a diplomatic resolution,” Miller added.
But the US has so far refused to use its leverage with its tight-knit ally Israel to end the nearly year-long war on Gaza - namely its outsized funding, weapons transfers and diplomatic support for Israel at the UN and on the world stage.
That’s despite the administration’s position that if there were to be a ceasefire in Gaza, that would likely end the spectre of a wider confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah.
“I think this is just another reminder that Benjamin Netanyahu is running the show,” National Iranian American Council (NIAC) president Jamal Abdi told Middle East Eye.
'I think this is just another reminder that Benjamin Netanyahu is running the show'
- Jamal Abdi, NIAC president
“I think that Netanyahu and the Israeli government have just played Biden like a fiddle,” he said. “The US just sent an envoy to go try to convince Israel to not start a war in Lebanon, and this is what they got. Netanyahu knows that there's going to be no consequence.”
Abdi added that the US has clear "pressure points" it could exert with Israel.
“And so I think that there's a real question here about whether this is a violation of international law, and if the United States is a government or a nation that cares about global order and rule of law and preventing terrorism, then we should make sure that violations of international law are met with accountability and utilise the many, many, many tools we have in order to do that.”
Netanyahu has made no secret of angling for a full-scale war with Hezbollah, in a bid to change what he said was the security situation along the border towns where around 90,000 Israelis remain displaced from their homes.
"Israel appreciates and respects the support of the Biden administration, but in the end, it will do what is necessary to maintain its security and return the residents of the north to their homes safely," Netanyahu told Hochstein on Sunday.
“I think what's happening is that people are concerned that they're not making any progress in Gaza,” Korb told Middle East Eye. “And this [new front] is one way. Iran has much more influence with Hezbollah than they do with Hamas.”
Chaos
It remains unknown exactly how the devices were rigged and subsequently detonated. Some military analysts say there was likely compromised third-party involvement in the production of the newly disseminated, rechargeable pagers.
“The competent authorities in Hezbollah are currently conducting a wide-ranging security and scientific investigation to determine the reasons that led to these simultaneous explosions,” Hezbollah said in a statement.
Lebanon’s information minister also blamed “Israeli aggression” as the health ministry confirmed at least nine deaths, including that of a child.
Security camera footage from markets and shops showed small explosions going off as the carriers of the pagers fell to the ground, while others covered their ears and ran.
Chaotic scenes from inside hospitals have strained an already fragile medical system, in a country struggling with a lack of consistent governance and uncontrolled inflation. Victims covered in blood appear to have lost fingers, eyes, and sometimes entire limbs.
Many were strewn across hospital floors in scenes reminiscent of the aftermath of an Israeli air strike in Gaza.
Among the dead was a 10-year-old girl who was killed in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley when the pager of her father, who is a Hezbollah member, exploded. The son of a Hezbollah MP was also reportedly among those killed.
The Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was also injured, according to Iran’s Mehr News Agency.
Middle East Eye reported earlier that a Lebanese official, speaking anonymously to MEE as he was unauthorised to talk to the media, said that he suspected Israeli authorities penetrated the pagers in order to "provoke a war".
"The developments today mark an extremely concerning escalation in what is an already unacceptably volatile context," UN special coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said in a statement.
According to Syrian and Iranian media, Hezbollah members were also wounded and taken to hospital in Syria, where they have been supporting the government of Bashar al-Assad.
When pressed on the far-ranging scale of the attack, US State Department spokesperson Miller all but praised the operation.
“Terrorist members of a terrorist organisation are legitimate targets for countries to launch operations against,” Miller said at the daily press briefing. “Those are the principles that we hold ourselves to, and those are the principles we expect other countries to uphold in their operations.”
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