How did Hezbollah get the pagers that exploded in Lebanon?
Civil defence first responders carry a man who was wounded in the southern port city of Sidon, 17 September 2024
Sarah Shamim writes in Al Jazeera on 18 September 2024:
Hundreds of pagers belonging to the armed group Hezbollah exploded on Tuesday in Lebanon, killing at least 12 people and wounding about 2,750. Some pagers belonging to Hezbollah also exploded in Syria, leading to some injuries.
Lebanon, Hezbollah and the group’s allies have all blamed Israel. But what really happened? Many analysts believe the answer might lie in how Hezbollah got the pagers in the first place — because that might hold clues to whether the devices were tampered with to facilitate the explosions.
Here’s what we know and what experts believe might have happened:
What happened to the Hezbollah pagers in Lebanon?
About 3:30pm (12:30 GMT), hundreds of pagers all over Lebanon started exploding. Hezbollah released a statement on Tuesday saying two of its fighters and a girl were killed as “pagers belonging to employees of various Hezbollah units and institutions exploded”.
The Iran-backed group attributed the pager blasts to Israel, which has been involved in tit-for-tat attacks with Hezbollah across the Lebanon-Israel border since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza.