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Regarding the fatal attacks, Lebanon lodged a complaint with the UN’s Labour Agency this week.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, has acknowledged that he “okayed” the September pager attacks in Lebanon that left 3,000 Iranian-backed Hezbollah members injured and nearly 40 dead.
According to his spokesperson Omer Dostri, “Netanyahu confirmed Sunday that he greenlighted the pager operation in Lebanon,” as reported by AFP.
Iran and Hezbollah blamed Israel for the September 17 and 18 explosions of thousands of pagers in Hezbollah strongholds. According to reports, some of the wounded Hezbollah members lost their fingers, and others lost their vision.
Hezbollah had vowed to exact revenge and referred to the explosions as a “Israeli breach” of its communications network.
Hezbollah members utilised the pagers as a low-tech communication tool to avoid Israeli location monitoring.
The explosions occurred just hours after Israel declared it was expanding the war’s objectives, which were triggered by Hamas’ October 7 attacks, to include combating Hezbollah, the group’s ally along Israel’s border with Lebanon.
Lebanon complained about the deadly attack on the UN Labour Agency this week, describing it as an “egregious war against humanity.”
Israel and Hezbollah have been fighting across the Lebanese border since the war in Gaza erupted after Hamas attacked Israeli towns on October 7 last year. Since then, several Hezbollah fighters, including the former chief of the Iran-backed group Hassan Nasrallah, have been killed. In a strike in southern Beirut last month, Israel’s army also confirmed that it had “eliminated” Hashem Safieddine, an apparent successor of Nasrallah and member of Hezbollah.
Israel launched airstrikes on Hezbollah’s main stronghold in south Beirut on Thursday. One raid targeted a neighbourhood close to Lebanon’s sole international airport, causing minor damage to a few of the airport’s structures, including the headquarters of flag carrier Middle East Airlines.
Israeli strikes on Lebanon have killed over 3,000 people since October of last year.