Hezbollah fighters carry the coffins of a person killed after hundreds of paging devices exploded in a deadly wave across Lebanon the previous day, during their funeral procession in Beirut’s southern suburbs on September 18, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Japanese firm Icom said Thursday (September 19, 2024) that it had stopped producing the model of radios reportedly used in recent blasts in Lebanon around 10 years ago.

“The IC-V82 is a handheld radio that was produced and exported, including to the Middle East, from 2004 to October 2014. It was discontinued about 10 years ago, and since then, it has not been shipped from our company,” Icom said in a statement.

“The production of the batteries needed to operate the main unit has also been discontinued, and a hologram seal to distinguish counterfeit products was not attached, so it is not possible to confirm whether the product shipped from our company,” it said.

It added that products for overseas markets are sold exclusively through its authorized distributors, and that its export programme is based on Japanese security trade control regulations.

“All of our radios are manufactured at our production subsidiary, Wakayama Icom Inc., in Wakayama Prefecture, under a strict management system… so no parts other than those specified by our company are used in a product. In addition, all of our radios are manufactured at the same factory, and we do not manufacture them overseas,” the statement said.

In the second wave of device explosions in as many days, 20 people died and more than 450 were wounded on Wednesday (September 19, 2024) in Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon, officials said.

A source close to Hezbollah said walkie-talkies used by its members blew up in its Beirut stronghold, with state media reporting similar blasts in south and east Lebanon.

They came a day after the simultaneous explosion of hundreds of paging devices used by Hezbollah killed 12 people, including two children, and wounded up to 2,800 others across Lebanon, in an unprecedented attack blamed on Israel.

There was no comment from Israel. The White House warned all sides against “an escalation of any kind”.

People gather as smoke rises from a mobile shop in Sidon, Lebanon, on September 18, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

At least three people are killed and hundreds injured after another round of explosions in Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut, Lebanon, on Wednesday (September 18, 2024). A source close to Lebanon’s Hezbollah group said walkie-talkies used by the group members exploded in its Beirut stronghold with State media reporting similar blasts of pagers and “devices” in east and south Lebanon.

“A number of walkie talkies exploded in Beirut’s southern suburbs,” the source said, with Hezbollah-affiliated rescuers confirming devices had exploded inside two cars in the area.

Lebanon pagers explosion: Follow highlights from September 17, 2024

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said pagers and “devices” had also exploded in Hezbollah strongholds in the east and south, with AFP correspondents also reporting hearing explosions..

Meanwhile, Associated Press journalists said that multiple explosions occurred at the site of a funeral for three Hezbollah members and a child killed by exploding pagers the day before.

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Lebanon’s state-run media said the exploding devices killed three people in the east, with a medical source saying 15 more were wounded, with similar blasts reported in other Hezbollah strongholds.

“Three martyrs fell after devices exploded in the town of Sohmor,” the state-run National News Agency said, with a hospital source in the city of Baalbek telling AFP 15 people had been wounded after walkie talkies exploded.

Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said eight people were killed and some 2,750 wounded in pager explosions across the country, with Hezbollah earlier saying the pagers were used by its members. 

The blasts “killed eight people, including a girl”, he told a televised press conference. “About 2,750 people were injured… more than 200 of them critically” with injuries mostly reported to the face, hands and stomach, he added.

– AFP

Civil Defence first-responders carry a wounded man whose handheld pager exploded at al-Zahraa hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, on September 17, 2024.\
| Photo Credit: AP

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.