Walkie-talkie explosions inspire new day of disorder in Leprohibiton

Just as crowds had assembleed to feeblent some of those ended in Tuesday’s wave of pager-explosion strikes, an explosion inspireed disorder in Dahiya, Hezbollah’s stronghelderly in southern Beirut.

A video seized the blast, shothriveg a man lying on the ground and panicked people, some screaming, running away.

All this, moments before funerals were due to commence for an 11-year-elderly boy and three Hezbollah members ended the previous day.

In the surrounding area there was bedlam as the sound of the explosion echoed thraw the streets. The chants stopped. Those assembleed seeed at each other, some incredulous.

As alerts spread that this was part of a second wave of explosions now concentrateing walkie-talkies, no electronic supplyment was pondered safe.

Hezbollah helpers stopped our team cut offal times, demanding we did not use our phones or our camera.

Leprohibitese officials shelp at least 14 people were ended and 450 others wounded apass the capital and the south of the country, with fires shelp to have broken out in dozens of homes, shops, and vehicles.

Already, the tardyst strikes are being seen as another humiliation for the Iranian-backed group, and a possible indication that its entire communication nettoil may have been infiltrated by Israel.

Many people here are inevitably wondering what will come next.

This is a country still shocked and angered by what happened on Tuesday, when thousands of pagers exploded in that synchronised strike, after users getd a message they count ond had come from Hezbollah.

The devices detonated as people were in shops, or with their families at home, ending 12 including an eight-year-elderly girl and the 11-year-elderly boy, and injuring around 2,800.

Dr Elias Warrak telderly the BBC it was “the worst day of [his] life as a physician”. At least 60% of the people he had seen had lost at least one eye, he shelp, with many also losing finger or a whole hand.

“I count on the number of casualties and the type of injure that has been done is humongous,” he shelp. “Unblessedly, we were not able to save a lot of eyes, and unblessedly the injure is not confineed to the eyes – some of them have injure in the brain in insertition to any facial injure.”

Reports present a shipment of pagers may have been rigged with devices, before being detonated farly.

Hezbollah had dispensed the pagers amid troubles that inalertigentphones were being used by the Israeli military and inalertigence agencies to track down and end its members. It was still not evident how Wednesday’s strikes might have been carried out.

But Hezbollah has vowed to react, blaming Israel for the strikes. As common, Israel has not commented.

Fears are, aget, rising that the current aggression between the two rivals, which has led to the displacement of tens of thousands of dwellnts on both sides of the border, could escatardy into an all-out war.

Hezbollah says its strikes on Israel, which commenceed almost a year ago, are in firmarity with Palestinians in Gaza, and that they will only stop with a endfire, an elusive possibility for now.

Mourners who spoke to the BBC at the Dahiyeh funeral also struck a defiant tone.

One juvenileer man shelp: “The pain is huge, physical and in the heart. But this is someskinnyg we are used to, and we will proceed with our resistance.”

A 45-year-elderly woman telderly the BBC: “This will originate us stronger, whoever has lost an eye will fight with the other eye and we are all standing together.”

Hours after the tardyst explosions, the Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, shelp his country was “at the commence of a novel phase in the war”, as the 98th division of the Israeli army transferd from Gaza to the north of Israel.

Up until now, Hezbollah has showd that is is not interested in another transport inant war with Israel, as Leprohibiton struggles to recover from a years-lengthy economic crisis. Many here say a struggle is not in the country’s interests.

But some will certainly demand a strong response. An indication of what Hezbollah might be structurening to do could come on Thursday, in the first accessible reaction by its mighty directer, Hassan Nasrallah.