Israeli booby-traps kill 37 and wound 3,000!

LEBANON has accused Israel of committing war crimes after a series of deadly explosions involving booby-trapped communication devices killed at least 37 people and injured over 3,000 on Tuesday and Wednesday.

An initial investigation by Lebanese authorities revealed that pagers and walkie-talkies were ‘professionally booby-trapped’ before entering the country and detonated via emails sent to the devices, according to Lebanon’s mission to the United Nations.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah condemned the attacks in a televised address on Thursday, describing them as a ‘major aggression against Lebanon’ that could be considered ‘war crimes or a declaration of war’.
He stated: ‘The enemy crossed all rules, laws and red lines. It didn’t care about anything at all, not morally, not humanely, not legally.’
Vowing to continue the fight, Nasrallah pledged that Hezbollah would inflict a ‘just punishment’.
During his speech on Thursday, Israeli warplanes flew low over Beirut, causing sonic booms across the capital.
Hours later, Israel reportedly launched fresh air strikes targeting Hezbollah positions in Lebanon. Israeli officials have so far declined to comment on the accusations.
Lebanon’s mission to the UN has called on the Security Council to condemn the attack ahead of an emergency session planned for today, which Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib is expected to attend.
The mission criticised Israel for the ‘unprecedented brutality’ of the assault and stated that it compromised diplomatic efforts to halt fighting in the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon.
Hospitals in Beirut are overwhelmed by the influx of casualties from the explosions. Chief nursing officer Hisham Bawadi described receiving a ‘tsunami of patients’ following the blasts.
‘Most of the injuries were facial with mainly the eyes, the face affected, the upper extremities, and some injuries on the abdomen,’ he said.
Bawadi noted that surgeries are planned over the weekend to ‘be able to cater for the high number of casualties’, adding: ‘No single hospital or group of hospitals can cater for this large number of casualties, so every healthcare worker in Lebanon has to pitch in to be able to serve the injured people.’
The explosions occurred as thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies detonated while users were shopping, walking on streets, and attending funerals.
Tensions between Israel and Hezbollah have escalated since the Israeli regime launched a genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in October last year, resulting in the deaths of over 42,200 people, most of them women and children.
The two sides have exchanged heavy fire almost daily, leading to more than 600 deaths on the Lebanese side.
Meanwhile, Chinese Taipei has launched an investigation following reports that Israel inserted explosive material into a shipment of pagers from Taiwan-based company Gold Apollo.
The New York Times reported this week that Israel had tampered with these devices.
Gold Apollo head Hsu Ching-kuang denied producing the devices in question, suggesting that Hungary-based partner BAC Consulting KFT, which was allowed to use Gold Apollo’s trademark, could be responsible.
Prosecutors in Taipei stated that two individuals from Taiwanese companies were questioned as part of the probe into the exploding pagers.
‘Our country takes the case very seriously,’ the prosecutors’ office said. ‘We will clarify the facts as soon as possible such as whether Taiwanese companies are involved or not.’ The two witnesses were allowed to leave after multiple rounds of questioning.
Economic Minister Kuo Jyh-huei asserted that Gold Apollo’s pagers consist of components that are ‘low-end IC and batteries’, adding: ‘These things would not explode.’
He insisted; ‘We can be certain that they are not produced in Taiwan.’ Taiwanese Premier Cho Jung-tai also stated: ‘The company and Taiwan did not directly export pagers to Lebanon.’

Hezbollah leader HASSAN NASRALLAH speaking on Thursday

8 killed and 17 wounded in Israeli air attack

THREE people, and five children have been killed and seventeen wounded in an Israeli air attack on a residential building in Jamous Street, southern Beirut, Lebanon’s health ministry reported on Friday.
An F-35 jet carried out two strikes on the area, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency. The Israeli military confirmed it had conducted a ‘targeted strike’ in Beirut, claiming it hit near key Hezbollah facilities in Dahiyeh, a suburb considered a Hezbollah stronghold.
‘This is a major escalation,’ said a local resident. ‘We are getting reports this could be a targeted assassination.’ Images from the scene show a building almost completely destroyed, raising concerns of further civilian casualties.
In response, Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets into northern Israel, stating the attacks were in retaliation for Israeli strikes on villages and homes in southern Lebanon. The group announced it had fired ‘salvoes of Katyusha rockets’ against at least six Israeli ‘army headquarters’ and bases, including a ‘main air defence base’.
The Israeli military reported that approximately 140 rockets were fired from Lebanon within an hour starting at 1:02pm (10:02 GMT), targeting sites along the border, including the occupied Golan Heights, the Upper Galilee region, and the town of Safed. Air defences intercepted some rockets, while others landed in open areas. No injuries were reported by Israeli authorities.
Tensions have escalated sharply following explosions targeting communications devices across Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday, which Hezbollah blames on Israel. These attacks killed more than thirty people, including two children, and wounded some three thousand five hundred others. Hezbollah, whose members were among the casualties, pledged to retaliate against Israel for what it described as unprecedented acts of aggression.
Israel has carried out extensive airstrikes on villages in southern Lebanon, claiming to have targeted ‘hundreds of rocket launcher barrels’ as well as ‘approximately one hundred launchers and additional terrorist infrastructure sites’. The Israeli military has also acknowledged striking dozens of rocket launchers overnight that were allegedly ready for use against Israel.
Sami Nader, director of the Levant Institute, warned that the raid on Beirut’s southern district marks a ‘dangerous escalation’ bringing the region closer to all-out war. ‘We’re not in a tit-for-tat; we’re in an open war,’ he said.
For nearly a year, Hezbollah has engaged in near-daily exchanges of fire with Israeli forces along the Lebanon-Israel border in support of Palestinans. Tens of thousands of people on both sides have been forced to flee their homes due to the fighting.
Israel launched its brutal US-backed genocidal war on Gaza on 7 October. The war has so far killed more than 41,272 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured tens of thousands of others. Thousands more are missing and presumed dead under rubble.

The post Israeli booby-traps kill 37 and wound 3,000! appeared first on Workers Revolutionary Party.