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.