At least 14 dead as walkie-talkies explode in Lebanon as Israel declares ‘new phase of war’ against Hezbollah

Walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah have exploded in a second wave of blasts across Beirut and Lebanon , killing at least 14 people and wounding more than 450.

It comes 24 hours after thousands of exploding pagers killed 12 and injured almost 3,000 others in an unprecedented attack Hezbollah has blamed on Israel – with the Israeli defence minister declaring a “new phase of war” on the border with Lebanon.

While Israel has not commented on either of the attacks, the finger has been pointed at its Mossad spy agency. A senior Lebanese security source and a second source told Reuters that Mossad – which has a long history of pulling off complex attacks on foreign soil – planted explosives inside the pagers. The claim was mirrored by American officials cited in US media.

The latest attacks on communication devices bore the hallmarks of the pager assault. The walkie-talkies detonated late on Wednesday afternoon across the country's south and in the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut, with reports that hundreds of the devices could have detonated. Many of the wounds were said to the stomach and hands.

At least one of the blasts took place near a funeral organised by Iran-backed Hezbollah for those killed during the pager explosions. In a video on social media, a blast occurs somewhere the body of a Hezbollah member body, knocking him to the ground and sending the crowd around him running.

Pictures also showed broken and singed communication devices amid scenes of destruction. The hand-held radios were purchased by Hezbollah five months ago, around the same time that the pagers were bought, a security source told Reuters.

“The prime minister of Lebanon was just here in the situation room at the ministry of health,” Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, told The Independent as his ministry rekeased the death toll. “We feel that there is an indiscriminate act of aggression and that it is another breach of international humanitarian law. was doing tours today meeting a lot of the patients and their families. The main feeling I got was one of indignation, not a feeling of hopeless and desperation – it was a sense of indignation and a feeling that this is really an escalation.”

Israel and Hezbollah have been trading near-daily cross-border rocket fire since Hamas – which, like Hezbollah, is backed by Iran –launched its bloody act of terror isside Israel on 7 October. That attack killed around 1,200 people and saw another 250 taken hostage into Gaza. Israel’s aerial and ground assault in response has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians according to health officials in the enclave and forced much of Gaza’s 2.3 million population from their homes.

The rhetoric around the strikes on ther Israeli-Lebanon border have been growing in recent weeks, and Israel’s defence minister said on Wednesday that the military is turning its attention towards that front. Earlier this week, Israel updated its war goals to include returning the tens of thousands of Israelis who have had to leave their homes thanks to the exchanges of fire across the border.

Speaking to Israeli troops, Yoav Gallant made no mention of the explosions of electronic devices in Lebanon in recent days. But he praised the work of Israel's army and security agencies, saying "the results are very impressive".

He said that after months of war against Hamas militants in Gaza, "the centre of gravity is shifting to the north by diverting resources and forces".

"We are at the start of a new phase in the war – it requires courage, determination and perseverance," he said.

Israel’s army chief, Herzi Halevi, added that country has “many capabilities” that have not yet been “activated”.

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi accused Israel of pushing the Middle East to the brink of a regional war by orchestrating a dangerous escalation on many fronts.

Officials told Axios that the walkie-talkies were booby-trapped in advance of them being delivered to Hezbollah as part for an emregy communication protocol for a war with Israel. Because of this, a number of the walkie-talkies were being stored in warehouses.

Ahead of the latest explosions, Hezbollah said it was carrying out a “security and scientific investigation” into the causes of the blasts. The sources told Axios that the decision to conduct the second attack was also driven by the assessment that Hezbollah's investigation into the pager explosions would likely expose the security breach in the walkie-talkies.

Senior Hamas official Izzat al-Rasheq said the Israeli government was responsible for the repercussions of "this continuous attack on Lebanon". Iran also condemned the attacks, with government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani saying: “Iran strongly condemns yesterday's criminal explosion of communication devices and today's criminal explosion of walkie-talkies, which resulted in the death and injury of hundreds of Lebanese civilians".

Images of the exploded walkie-talkies showed an inside panel labelled "ICOM" and "made in Japan." According to its website, ICOM is a Japan-based radio communications and telephone company.

The company has said that production of several models of the ICOM hand-held radio have been discontinued, including the IC-V82, which appeared to closely match those in images from Lebanon on Wednesday and which was phased out in 2014.

The death toll in the pager explosions rose to 12 on Wednesday, including two children, Mr Abiad said. Tuesday's attack wounded around 2,800 people, including Iran's envoy to Beirut.

A Taiwanese pager maker – Gold Apollo – denied that it had produced the pager devices, with their branding being recognised on the remnants.

Gold Apollo said the devices were made by under licence by a company called BAC Consulting, based in Hungary's capital Budapest. Responding to the news, a spokesman for Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban said: “Hungarian authorities have established that the company in question is a trading-intermediary company, which has no manufacturing or other site of operation in Hungary”

Zoltan Kovacs added: “The referenced devices have never been in Hungary.”

The CEO of BAC Consulting, Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono confirmed that her company worked with Gold Apollo to NBC News. But when asked about the pagers and the explosions, she said, “I don’t make the pagers. I am just the intermediate. I think you got it wrong”.

On BAC Consulting's website, which was live early on Wednesday but later became unavailable, there are notes about its activities but they are vague.

“With over a decade of consulting experience, we are on an exciting and rewarding journey with our network of passionate experts with a hunger for innovation and discovery for the Environment, Innovation & Development, and International Affairs,” according to the company’s LinkedIn page.

Ms Barsony-Arcidiacono says on her LinkedIn profile that she has worked as an adviser for various organisations including Unesco. BAC's registered activities are wide ranging, from computer game publishing to IT consulting to crude oil extraction.

With the manufacturing blame game continuing, focus has settled on exactly when the pagers were modified. A senior Lebanese source said the devices had been tampered with by Israel's spy service "at the production level."

"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," the source said.

Another security source said that up to three grams of explosives were hidden in the pagers and had gone "undetected" by Hezbollah for months. Other officials suggested the explosive was placed next to the battery, alongside a switch that could then be triggered remotely.

The UN’s secretary general, Antonio Guterres, is "deeply alarmed" by the reports of the exploding communication devices in Lebanon, his spokesman said.

"The secretary general urges all concerned actors to exercise maximum restraint to avert any further escalation," Stephane Dujarric added, noting that Mr Guterres is calling for an immediate "return to a cessation of hostilities to restore stability".

The United Nations Security Council will meet on Friday over the blasts.