Lebanon rocked by explosions again as Israel declares new phase of war

BEIRUT (AP) — Walkie-talkies and solar-powered devices exploded in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon on Wednesday, state media and a Hezbollah official said, in what appeared to be a second wave of attacks targeting the equipment, following an explosion a day after a pager used by Hezbollah exploded. At least 20 people were killed and more than 450 were wounded in the second wave, according to the health ministry.

The attack, widely believed to have been carried out by Israel to target Hezbollah, also killed civilians, raising fears that the simmering conflict between the two sides could escalate into all-out war.

“We are at the beginning of a new phase of the war. We need courage, determination and perseverance,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told the Israeli military on Wednesday. He did not mention the explosive devices but praised the work of the Israeli army and security services, saying “the results are very impressive.”

In Wednesday's attack, several explosions were heard at the funeral of three Hezbollah members and a child killed in Beirut by a pager that had exploded the previous day, according to an Associated Press journalist at the scene. In the southern coastal city of Sidon, an Associated Press cameraman saw damage to a car and cellphone shop after equipment inside exploded. In the south, a home solar power system exploded, injuring a girl, according to the state news agency.

The new explosions hit a country still in turmoil and anger after Tuesday's pager bombings killed at least 12 people, including two children, and injured about 2,800.

And during the second wave, hundreds of explosions occurred wherever people happened to have pagers – in homes, cars, grocery stores, cafes, etc. – often near families or passers-by, raising concerns that the attacks may have been indiscriminate in their casualties.

The pagers were used by Hezbollah members, but it is unclear who was holding the devices at the time of the explosion, and many of the victims were not Hezbollah fighters but rather participants in the group's broader civilian activities, primarily supporting Lebanon's Shiite community.

Among those killed on Tuesday were at least two medical workers: doctors, nurses, paramedics, charity workers, teachers and office workers who worked for Hezbollah-linked organisations, and an unknown number of them were carrying pagers.

Mary Ellen O'Connell, a professor of law and international peace studies at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, said booby traps are prohibited under international law. “The weaponization of objects for civilian use is strictly prohibited,” she said.

“The fear and terror that has been unleashed is grave,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said, calling for an independent investigation into the massive explosion.

The UN Security Council was scheduled to hold an emergency meeting on the Lebanon explosion on Friday afternoon at the request of Algeria, the Arab representative on the powerful 15-nation council.

Lebanon's most powerful militant group, Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, has been exchanging gunfire with Israeli forces almost daily since Oct. 8, the day after a Hamas-led attack in southern Israel sparked the Gaza conflict. Since then, attacks have killed hundreds in Lebanon and dozens in Israel, and forced tens of thousands to flee on both sides of the border. Hezbollah says it is attacking in support of its ally Hamas.

Hezbollah announced three attacks on parts of northern Israel on Wednesday, at least one of which came after a series of recent explosions in Lebanon.

Israeli leaders have issued a series of warnings in recent weeks that they may step up operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon, saying the firefighting must stop to allow border residents to return to their homes.Israel began moving more troops to its border with Lebanon on Wednesday as a precautionary measure, said an official familiar with the movement who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

In his comments, Gallant said that after months of fighting with Hamas in Gaza, “the center of gravity is shifting to the north by diverting resources and forces.”

As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with senior security officials at Israeli army headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israeli army commander Lt. Gen. Helgi Halevi said plans were being drawn up for further action against Hezbollah. Israeli media reported that the government had not yet decided whether to launch a major offensive in Lebanon.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is due to deliver a major speech on Thursday.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States was still assessing how the attack in Lebanon would affect efforts to negotiate a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas.

The pager bombing appears to have been a complex operation months in the making, with many experts believing Israel may have penetrated the supply chain and planted explosives in hundreds of pagers before importing them into Lebanon, but little evidence has emerged so far.

Taiwanese company Gold Apollo said it had given Hungary-based BAC Consulting KFT permission to use its name on pagers delivered to Hezbollah, but a Hungarian government spokesman said Wednesday that the pagers delivered to Hezbollah had never been in Hungary and that BAC Consultants had merely acted as an intermediary.

Hungary's national security agencies are cooperating with international partners, Hungarian spokesman Zoltan Kovács said in a post on X on Wednesday.

Wednesday's new bombings came as Lebanese people were mourning the deaths of those killed the previous day.

Two explosions ripped through southern Beirut near the funeral of two fighters, a boy and a paramedic. As ambulances slammed on their brakes to reach the scene, the ceremony continued, with Hezbollah leader Hashem Safieddine telling mourners that Israel's “acts of aggression will receive a special punishment.”

Israeli drones flew overhead, a common sight in Beirut and much of Lebanon, while thousands of mourners carried the four coffins in a procession to the cemetery.

“We will not despair or surrender. We will continue as long as there is blood in our veins,” one woman, who gave her name as Umm Hussein, said, standing outside the cemetery with her four children.

A Hezbollah official told The Associated Press that walkie-talkies used by the group exploded in several parts of the country on Wednesday, asking not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Lebanon's state-run Press Agency said residential solar power systems exploded in several areas of Beirut and the south, wounding at least one girl.

Dozens of people gathered in the village of Nabi Sheet in the Bekaa Valley to mourn one of the pager victims, 9-year-old Fatima Abdullah. Her mother, dressed in black and wearing a yellow Hezbollah headscarf, cried along with other women and children gathered around the girl's coffin before the burial.

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This story has been updated to correct the age of one of the murdered children; she was 9, not 8.

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Spike reported from Budapest, and Lai from Taipei, Taiwan. Associated Press writers Abby Sewell and Kareem Shehaieb in Beirut, Simina Mistreanu in Taipei, Melanie Lydman and Joseph Federman in Jerusalem, Zeke Miller in Washington and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.