Israel’s response to the Tuesday night attack on Hamas in Lebanon and its implication for Hezbollah’s embassy in Israel

There is footage posted on social media showing blasts that were too large to be from pager batteries alone. The mangled pager depicted in the photo circulating widely appeared to be from the Gold Apollo AP-900 alphanumeric pager. The gold ApolloAR-924 is the pager model which comes with a lithium-ion battery.

Ron Ben-Yishay wrote ” officials in Jerusalem, within the defense establishment and several experts, argue that the current timing should be used to launch a comprehensive campaign in Lebanon.” “This campaign could destroy a significant portion of Hezbollah’s missile and other capabilities, acquired with Iranian assistance, which pose a serious threat to Israel’s home front.”

“Hezbollah’s competent agencies are currently conducting a wide-ranging security and scientific investigation to determine the causes that led to these simultaneous explosions,” Hezbollah said in an initial statement.

The number of people killed and wounded in a wave of explosions in Lebanon on Wednesday increased to 14.

Hospitals with wounded people are shown in the video footage that is posted to social media, as well as an explosion occurring around waist height, while pictures of pagers and others are also shown. People with ties to the region say there was chaos due to the explosions.

It was only a day after the explosion in Lebanon that there were even more explosions, leaving at least 12 people dead and thousands injured.

Daniel Estrin reported from Tel Aviv. They contributed to the report from Tel Aviv. Tom Bowman contributed from Washington.

Iran, whose ambassador to Lebanon was wounded in Tuesday’s pager attack, may be motivated to retaliate against Israel following the explosions targeting its Lebanese proxy, especially because it has yet to avenge a July 31 bombing that killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in his guest room in the Iranian capital.

In the days leading up to Tuesday’s pagers operation, Israel’s leadership had publicly warned that only military action could stop Hezbollah’s attacks and allow Israeli civilians to return to their homes near the border with Lebanon.

Hezbollah has vowed that Israel will face punishment for the attacks. It has not specified what form that punishment could take. The group’s ability to initiate a war has been very limited.

“Israel might be dreaming of reestablishing a ‘security zone’ in Lebanon, or replicating the ‘perimeter’ tactic — creating a buffer zone around the Gaza Strip — to push back the threat,” wrote columnist Zvi Bar’el in the left-leaning Haaretz. “This would imply a long-term occupation inside Lebanon, repeating the same mistake and expecting different results.”

Some Israeli columnists praised the explosions as an operational success but reported that Israel had not originally planned to detonate the devices now but did so out of concern that information might leak and compromise the mission.

Israel’s security ministry saw its opportunity: Hezbollah had a smart beeper, not a spied

Fearing that Israeli intelligence had infiltrated Hezbollah’s communications, Hezbollah officials adopted old-fashioned handheld beepers, security experts say.

There was a second wave of blasts of wireless devices on Wednesday afternoon, as well as a funeral for Hezbollah members and a child killed in Tuesday’s bombings.

The Defence Minister spoke about great achievements by Israel’s military and intelligence branches on Wednesday but did not mention the device attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Hezbollah had already feared that the group would be targeted by spies, even before this week’s blasts.

Nasrallah said he wanted to break it and bury it, and lock it up in a metal box. “Do it for a week, two weeks, a month.” These people are deadly spies.

Lebanon’s official news agency also reported exploding home solar systems less than two hours after the radio detonations began on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press. The current information on the alleged solar equipment attacks was still being developed.

The head of intelligence at the risk management company Le Beck International says that the devices exploding are handheld radios that may be an Icom model.

The second round of explosions on Wednesday indicates that whoever conducted the sabotage and attacks likely had deeply rooted access and knowledge of Hezbollah’s infrastructure and operations. This shows the deeper penetration that may have used multiple fronts and different electronic devices and providers. This is not seen in this area.