Hezbollah’s leader has condemned Israel after thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies exploded over two days, saying ‘all red lines have been crossed by the enemy.’
Sonic booms from Israeli jets were heard over Beirut at the same time as the group’s chief Hassan Nasrallah was making his speech, sparking terror across the Lebanese capital which has been on edge since the attacks began on Tuesday.
Lebanon, Hezbollah and Iran have blamed Israel for the attacks that have killed 37 people and wounded around 3,000, overwhelming Lebanese hospitals and wreaking bloody havoc on Hezbollah.
Israel has not directly commented on the attacks, which security sources say were probably carried out by its Mossad spy agency, with Defence Minister Yoav Gallant saying only that ‘the results are very impressive’.
In his first address since the attacks began to wreak havoc across Lebanon on Tuesday, Nasrallah said more than 4,000 devices were detonated with the intention of killing thousands.
‘This could be called a declaration of war,’ Nasrallah told his followers.
‘We have received a very hard hit, but this is the state of war. Through this experience and its lessons we will be stronger and more powerful.’
Nasrallah said the explosions had ‘happened in hospitals, pharmacies, markets, shops, houses and in cars,’ as well as in the streets ‘where many civilians were along with women and children.’
‘This is the scale of criminality,’ he said. ‘What can we call this kind of criminal action – is it a big operation? Is it genocide? Is it a massacre?’
He said the death toll, which stands at 37 in total, could have been far higher, but that not all the pagers and radios had been handed out and not all fighters were with their communication devices when the blasts were triggered.
While high-ranking officials, including Iran’s envoy to Beirut, are confirmed to have been wounded in the blasts, Nasrallah insisted that top Hezbollah members did not carry the model of pagers that exploded.
‘What happened did not impact our command, control or infrastructure’, he added, though he admitted that it had been a major security breach.
During Nasrallah’s lengthy three-part address, Israel announced that it was continuing airstrikes on Lebanon, with warning sirens ringing out in northern Israel indicating possible incoming fire.
In a statement, Israel’s defence forces said the army was ‘striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon to degrade Hezbollah’s terrorist capabilities and infrastructure.’