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STORY: Smoke billowed from a cell phone shop in Sidon, Lebanon on Wednesday (September 18) after hand-held radios used by Hezbollah detonated across the country’s south.Lebanon's health ministry said several people were killed in the latest attack and hundreds were wounded.:: September 17, 2024The death toll from Tuesday's pager explosions rose to 12, including two children, with nearly 3,000 injured.At a funeral for four of those killed by the exploding pagers, Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine promised a response."This aggression inevitably has its own punishment. It has its own retribution. This punishment will come, God willing. We will not talk much, as tomorrow the talk will be for the master of the resistance."Hezbollah said on Wednesday it had attacked Israeli artillery positions with rockets in its first strike at its arch-foe since the pager blasts.A senior Lebanese security source said the explosives were planted months earlier by Israel's spy agency Mossad.:: Israeli ArmyIsrael's military has declined to comment on the blasts.BLINKEN: "It's imperative that all parties refrain from any actions that could escalate the conflict."U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken - in Cairo to advance efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza - said the detonations in Lebanon threatened to derail diplomatic efforts in the Middle East.Later, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the incidents risked a dramatic escalation in the region."Because obviously the logic of making all these devices explode is to do it as a pre-emptive strike before a major military operation."A security source said the hand-held radios were purchased by Hezbollah five months ago, around the same time the group bought the pagers.Two sources familiar with the group's operations told Reuters its fighters began using pagers hoping to evade Israeli tracking.A Reuters reporter in the southern suburbs of Beirut said he saw Hezbollah members frantically taking out the batteries of any walkie-talkies on them that had not exploded.:: Israeli Defence MinistryMeanwhile, Israel released video on Wednesday that showed Defense Minister Yoav Gallant telling troops that more forces were being sent to the northern border, where Lebanon borders Israel, as the war moved into a new phase.
