Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati has said his nation is at war after electronic devices exploded across the country for two days in a row, killing more than 30 people and injuring thousands of others.
On Tuesday, pagers used by members of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah detonated simultaneously, killing 12 people and wounding nearly 3,000, according to the health authorities. Another 20 people lost their lives and 450 others were injured the following day when thousands of other electronic devices, including walkie-talkies, laptops, and radios, blew up.
Hezbollah and the government in Beirut have blamed Israel for the attacks. The Jewish state has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility. Media reports have claimed that the Israeli secret service, Mossad, rigged thousands of electronic devices with small explosive charges, which were triggered via a remote signal.
Mikati was visiting a hospital where victims of the first wave of explosions were being treated when reports of more detonations came in on Wednesday, according to the prime minister’s office.
“This mass crime… against defenseless people in their homes, who are being killed in this way, is indescribable,” Mikati told journalists.
He insisted that Lebanon is in a state of war with Israel. “This war started about 11 months ago and it is affecting our people in the south where their homes are being destroyed,” he said.
Mikati was referring to regular exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and the Israeli military on the border, as well as the Jewish state’s airstrikes into Lebanese territory which started after the incursion into Israel by the Palestinian armed group Hamas on October 7 last year.
The prime minister again blamed Israel for the explosions of electronic devices, claiming that the Jewish state’s “whole history over the past 75 years has been criminal.”
“We are facing an enemy that disregards all international and humanitarian laws, and the question is – can this continue? Where is the UN, whose primary mission is to distribute peace?” Mikati asked.
He added that he had instructed Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib to ensure that the attacks on the country are addressed by the UN Security Council.
Following the second wave of electronic blasts on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that “a new phase” of the country’s almost year-long war was beginning, with the focus shifting from Hamas in Gaza to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
READ MORE: Israel declares ‘new phase’ of war after anti-Hezbollah operation
“The center of gravity is moving north. We are diverting forces, resources, and energy toward the north,” Gallant told Israeli troops.
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