Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad confirmed early this evening in Beirut, that at least 9 people had been killed and 2,750 wounded when their pagers exploded, nearly simultaneously, all across the capital city of Beirut, across southern Lebanon, and northwards into the Bekaa Valley earlier in the afternoon, in an apparent attack against Hezbollah. Abiad said that 200 patients remained in critical condition in 100 hospitals, reported Al Mayadeen. He detailed in a press conference that the majority of injuries, in the initial tally he announced, were in the face, eyes, hand, or abdomen. Among those reported injured was Iran’s Ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani, though his life is reportedly not in danger.
Hezbollah immediately blamed Israel for what it believed was a cyber attack that caused the batteries in the pagers to overheat and explode. According to the Wall Street Journal, many of the affected pagers were from a new shipment that the group had received in recent days, people familiar with the matter said. A Hezbollah official said many fighters had such devices, speculating that malware might have caused the devices to explode. The official said some people felt the pagers heat up and they disposed of them before they burst. Israeli officials have so far not commented.
Speculation has centered on what type of pager Hezbollah was using, and how thousands of them could have been induced to explode, whether by means of a cyber attack, or having planted small explosive charges in them. Footage posted on social media claiming to show examples of the explosions from around the country depicts blasts that seemed too large to come from pager batteries alone, reported Wired. One photo circulating widely, appeared to show a mangled pager with some legible make and model information that may point to the Gold Apollo AP-900 alphanumeric pager. Other reports indicate that the pager model is the Gold Apollo AR-924, which has a lithium-ion battery.
