Israel declares ‘new phase’ of war after detonating Hezbollah’s walkie-talkies in second wave of booby-trap blasts
ISRAEL has declared a “new phase of war” after Hezbollah terrorists were hit by a fresh wave of detonating devices – killing at least 20 and injuring hundreds. Booby-trapped walkie-talkies used by fighters blew up in their hands this afternoon and triggered blasts across Lebanon’s south. A man fell to the ground injured after a blastX/NewsWaradana X/ME_Observer_An apartment building on fire in Beirut[/caption] A car on fire in the capital after a blast in capitalX/Seamus_Malek A damaged device discarded on the groundX/ME_Observer_ ReutersSmoke pours from a phone shop in Sidon[/caption] An image shared online shows a destroyed fingerprint deviceX/visegrad24 It comes just a day after 12 people, including two children, were left dead and thousands wounded after “brand new” pagers exploded across the country. Israeli spies had carefully planted explosives in thousands of pagers before detonatin
ISRAEL has declared a “new phase of war” after Hezbollah terrorists were hit by a fresh wave of detonating devices – killing at least 20 and injuring hundreds.
Booby-trapped walkie-talkies used by fighters blew up in their hands this afternoon and triggered blasts across Lebanon’s south.
It comes just a day after 12 people, including two children, were left dead and thousands wounded after “brand new” pagers exploded across the country.
Israeli spies had carefully planted explosives in thousands of pagers before detonating them by sending a coded message.
On Wednesday, blasts rocked Lebanon’s south as rigged hand-held radios used by Hezbollah detonated.
They killed at least 20 people with a further 450 injured, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
The blasts will further stoke tensions in the Middle East in what officials fear could be a “pre-emptive strike” – with Israel also deploying troops to the border.
Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant declared the start of a “new phase” of war as the country’s army moved north.
At least one explosion was heard at a funeral for a young boy and three Hezbollah fighters killed in Tuesday’s explosions.
Panicking Hezbollah fighters were seen tearing the batteries from their walkie-talkies and tossing them into a pile on the ground as ambulances raced to the scene.
And shocking footage shows a bloodied man on the floor as passersby rush to help him and others flee following an explosion in Beirut.
An apartment building and vehicles were also seen on fire as sirens wailed for a second day across the Lebanese capital.
In Sidon – the country’s third largest city – smoke can be seen pouring from a phone shop with an ambulance parked outside.
Home solar energy systems also exploded this afternoon, Lebanon’s official news agency reports.
Fingerprint devices and radios also reportedly exploded.
Local reports said a number of wireless devices exploded in Baalbek, northeast of Beirut, after their owners threw them into the streets later on Wednesday evening.
Solar equipment, fingerprint devices and radios also reportedly exploded in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon on Wednesday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed this evening to return all evacuated citizens to the northern border with Lebanon.
The White House said it is too soon to tell whether the explosions will affect ongoing ceasefire talks in Gaza.
At least three people have been killed in Bekaa region and hundreds injured in Wednesday’s fresh explosions, according to security sources.
Many of the wounds were to the stomach and hands, the source said.
Sources revealed that the radios had been bought and shipped to the group’s quartermasters in February at the same time as the sabotaged pagers.
Analysts believe the new attack was the second phase or an Israeli masterplan to paralyse their Lebanese enemy’s communication before launching a massive attack.
UN security general Antonio Guterres has warned the blasts could be a precursor for something much more serious.
He said: “The logic of making all these devices explode is to do it as a pre-emptive strike before a major military operation.
“These events confirm that there is a serious risk of a dramatic escalation in Lebanon and everything must be done to avoid that escalation.”
It what could be seen as another warning sign, the IDF on Wednesday moved troops to the border.
The 98th Division – which has up to 20,000 troops – withdrew from Gaza late in August and will now join the 36th Division under the Northern Command.
It comes after Hezbollah was left reeling after Tuesday’s attack – vowing revenge after hundreds of devices exploded almost simultaneously in Lebanon and Syria.
The blasts saw at least twelve people dead and nearly 3,000 injured, including Hezbollah’s terrorists and the Iranian ambassador.
Israel’s Mossad spy agency hid a small amount of explosives inside the pagers ordered by Hezbollah months before Tuesday’s detonations, two sources claimed.
A senior Lebanese security source said the group had ordered 5,000 beepers made by Taiwan-based Gold Apollo, which were brought into the country in the spring.
The pagers been ordered after the group’s leader ordered members to stop using phones in February over fears they could be tracked by Israeli spies.
They said the devices had been modified by Israel’s spy service “at the production level.”
They said: “The Mossad injected a board inside of the device that has explosive material that receives a code.
“It’s very hard to detect it through any means. Even with any device or scanner.”
They added that 3,000 of the pagers exploded when a coded message was sent to them, simultaneously activating the explosives.
The source identified a photograph of the model of the pager, an AP924, which like other pagers wirelessly receive and display text mess
The plot appears to have been in the making for months they said.
And another security source said that up to three grams of explosives were hidden in the new pagers and had gone “undetected” by Hezbollah for months.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah previously warned the group’s members not to carry cellphones.
He warned they could be used by Israel to track the group’s movements.
As a result, the organisation uses pagers and two-way radios to communicate.
Pagers also run on a different wireless network to mobiles, providing a means to sidestep what’s believed to be intensive Israeli electronic surveillance on mobile phone networks in Lebanon.
British pager firm denies knowledge of bomb plot
BY Nick Parker, Foreign Editor
THE British-educated boss of the firm said to have manufactured the pagers denied any knowledge of the bomb plot on Tuesday.
Glamorous Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono, who lists “disaster management” as a skill, is listed as the chief executive of Hungarian company BAC Consulting KFT.
She said: “I don’t make the pagers. I am just the intermediary. I think you got it wrong.”
Barsony-Arcidiacono, inset, who is in her 40s, lived in Gospel Oak, North London, during 13 years in the UK, studying at various universities.
The businesswoman speaks seven languages and claims to specialise in resolving “conflict issues”.
She did a PhD in physical sciences at University College London between 2002 and 2006, before a masters in sustainable development for management of natural resources from 2009 to 2014.
She then studied for a diploma in politics at the London School of Economics from 2015 to 2017.
She says she also worked as an evaluation expert at the European Commission.
On her LinkedIn profile, she describes having “with love devoted myself to science and development”.
She boasts she can “lead/strategise/catalyse environmental, political and development programs of broad scope and complexity”.
She also says she “enjoys working in a multicultural environment where passion, integrity and humour are valued”.
Israel launched spy movie pager plot to lure Hezbollah into war…& destroy them once and for all, ex-Mossad agent warns
BY James Halpin, Foreign News Reporter
ISRAEL’S pager plot could be inspired by a spy film and the country is goading Hezbollah into starting a war, an ex-Mossad agent says.
Nearly 3,000 people were injured on Tuesday and 12 were killed in the sabotage attack leaving Lebanon in chaos and hospitals full of bloodied and injured.
Avner Avraham claims Israel is directly challenging Hezbollah to start a war in retaliation, so it can then invade Lebanon and wipe them out.
Avraham says the chess move attack was Israel saying: “Don’t mess with us”.
He said: “The attack on Tuesday was so strong and wide if they [Hezbollah] do start a limited war, they will lose immediately.
“In the north, we have to start a limited war and we prefer that Hezbollah would make the first mistake.
“The response would be a huge damage to Lebanon, it would go 100 years back.”
But, the 28-year spy veteran says Hezbollah has been left weak with so many people injured and Lebanon plunged into chaos.
“Now they don’t have a different kind of communication system, all their hospitals are full with injured people, this is the best time to attack them.”
Avraham said he believed Israel needed to attack Lebanon and create a “dead zone” inside the country where nobody lived.
That buffer would provide safety for the Israelis living in the north of the country – tens of thousands of whom have been displaced since fighting began last year.
“To bring back the families to the north, you cannot bring them to the world without destroying and pushing all the Hezbollah from the border.”
Avraham also said it is possible that the attack could have been inspired by gadgets used in spy films, something he did as an agent.
“Sometimes we use examples ideas from James Bond films, we took ideas, I can tell you this for sure.
He said: “No one could write the script for Tuesday. This is the real example of thinking outside the box… All the world saw what happened Tuesday, this is the money time.
“If Mossad is doing something and wants to declare it, they will declare it… In all cases they just do it and disappear.
“That’s the whole idea, you don’t know who is responsible for this, you don’t have any idea.”
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