With no sophisticated communications system, Hezbollah must be in complete disarray.
Israeli strikes kill at least 356 in deadliest day
of conflict for Lebanon since 2006 war
Thousands of Lebanese fled the south, and the main highway out of the southern port city of Sidon was jammed with cars heading toward Beirut in the biggest exodus since 2006.
Lebanon’s health ministry said the strikes killed 356 people, including 24 children and 42 women, and wounded 1,246 people — a staggering one-day toll for a country still reeling from a deadly attack on communication devices last week.
The death toll far surpassed that of Beirut’s devastating port explosion in 2020, when hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse detonated, killing at least 218 people and wounding more than 6,000.
In a recorded message, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Lebanese civilians to heed Israeli calls to evacuate, saying “take this warning seriously.”
“Please get out of harm’s way now,” Netanyahu said. “Once our operation is finished, you can come back safely to your homes.”
Earlier Monday evening, the Israeli military said it had carried out a targeted strike in Beirut. It did not give details. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported southern Beirut’s Beir al-Abed neighborhood was hit with three missiles. Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said six people were wounded.
Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad told a news conference the earlier strikes hit hospitals, medical centers and ambulances. The government ordered schools and universities to close across most of the country and began preparing shelters for the displaced.
Some strikes struck residential areas in the south and the eastern Bekaa Valley. One hit a wooded area as far away as Byblos in central Lebanon, more than 80 miles (130 kilometers) from the border north of Beirut.
Watch this: Notice the myriad secondary eplosions in this ordinary house in South Lebanon. Also notice the adjacent buildings were not affected by the primary explosion but only by the secondary explosions.
The military said it was expanding the airstrikes to include areas of the valley along Lebanon’s eastern border with Syria. Hezbollah has long had an established presence in the valley, where the group was founded in 1982 with the help of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Israel’s military chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said Israel was preparing its “next phases” of operations against Hezbollah, and that its airstrikes were “proactive,” targeting Hezbollah infrastructure built over the past 20 years.
Halevi said more details would be released in the near future, and that the goal was to allow displaced Israelis to return to their homes in northern Israel.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah said it fired dozens of rockets toward Israel, including at military bases. It also targeted for a second day the facilities of the Rafael defense firm, headquartered in Haifa.
As Israel carried out the attacks, Israeli authorities reported a series of air-raid sirens in northern Israel warning of incoming rocket fire from Lebanon.
The evacuation warnings were the first of their kind in nearly a year of steadily escalating conflict and came after a particularly heavy exchange of fire Sunday. Hezbollah launched around 150 rockets, missiles and drones into northern Israel in retaliation for strikes that killed a top commander and dozens of fighters.
The increasing strikes and counterstrikes have raised fears of all-out war, even as Israel battles Hamas in Gaza and tries to negotiate the release of scores of hostages taken in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. Hezbollah has vowed to continue its strikes in solidarity with Hamas, a fellow Iran-backed militant group.
Associated Press journalists in southern Lebanon reported heavy airstrikes targeting many areas Monday morning, including some far from the border.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the strikes hit the central province of Byblos for the first time since the exchanges began.
Israel also bombed targets in the northeastern Baalbek and Hermel regions, where a shepherd was killed and two relatives wounded, the news agency said, adding that a total of 30 people were wounded.
The Lebanese Health Ministry asked hospitals in southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley to postpone non-urgent surgeries to keep hospitals ready to treat people wounded by “Israel’s expanding aggression on Lebanon.”
An Israeli military official said Israel is focused on aerial operations and has no immediate plans for a ground operation. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with regulations, said the strikes are aimed at curbing Hezbollah’s ability to launch more strikes into Israel.
Residents received text messages reading: “If you are in a building housing weapons for Hezbollah, move away from the village until further notice,” Lebanese media reported.
Lebanon’s information minister, Ziad Makary, said his office in Beirut had received a recorded message telling people to leave the building.
“This comes in the framework of the psychological war implemented by the enemy,” Makary said, and urged people “not to give the matter more attention than it deserves.”
Communities on both sides of the border have largely emptied because of the near-daily exchanges of fire.
Israel has accused Hezbollah of transforming entire communities in the south into militant bases, with hidden rocket launchers and other infrastructure. That could lead the Israeli military to wage an especially heavy bombing campaign, even if no ground forces move in.
An Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb on Friday killed a top Hezbollah military commander and more than a dozen fighters, as well as dozens of civilians, including women and children.
Last week, thousands of communications devices, used mainly by Hezbollah members, exploded in different parts of Lebanon, killing 39 people and wounding nearly 3,000, many of them civilians. Lebanon blamed Israel, but Israel did not confirm or deny responsibility.
Hezbollah began firing into Israel a day after the Oct. 7 attack in what it said was an attempt to pin down Israeli forces to help Palestinian fighters in Gaza. Israel has retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict has steadily intensified.
Israel has vowed to push Hezbollah back from the border so its citizens can return home. Hezbollah has said it will keep up attacks until there is a cease-fire in Gaza, but that appears increasingly elusive as the conflict nears its anniversary.
Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Some 100 captives are still held in Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead, after most of the rest were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November.
Israel’s offensive has killed over 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. It says women and children make up a little over half of those killed. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
Lidman reported from Jerusalem, and Mroue reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this report.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard bans communication
devices after Hezbollah pager explosions
Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has banned the use of pagers and other communication devices after the deadly attacks last week targeting its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, security officials said. One official said a large-scale operation is underway by the IRGC to inspect all devices, not just communication equipment.
Issued on:
Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has ordered all members to stop using any type of communication devices after thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by its Hezbollah allies in Lebanon blew up in deadly attacks last week, two senior Iranian security officials told Reuters.
One of the security officials said a large-scale operation is underway by the IRGC to inspect all devices, not just communication equipment. He said most of these devices were either homemade or imported from China and Russia.
Iran was concerned about infiltration by Israeli agents, including Iranians on Israel’s payroll and a thorough investigation of personnel has already begun, targeting mid and high-ranking members of the IRGC, added the official, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.
“This includes scrutiny of their bank accounts both in Iran and abroad, as well as their travel history and that of their families,” the security official said.
Iran’s Foreign, Defence and Interior Ministries were not immediately available to respond to the comments made by the security officials to Reuters.
In a coordinated attack, the pager devices detonated on Tuesday across Hezbollah’s strongholds. On Wednesday, hundreds of Hezbollah walkie-talkies exploded. The attacks killed 39 people and injured more than 3,000 people.
Lebanon and Hezbollah say Israel was behind the attacks. Israel has neither denied nor confirmed involvement.
The security official declined to give details on how the IRGC force, comprising 190,000 personnel, are communicating. “For now, we are using end-to-end encryption in messaging systems,” he said.
According to the same official, there is widespread concern among Iran’s ruling establishment. IRGC officials have reached out to Hezbollah for technical assessments, and several examples of exploded devices have been sent to Tehran for examination by Iranian experts.
Missile, nuclear facilities
Another Iranian official said the Islamic Republic’s main concern was the protection of the country’s nuclear and missile facilities, particularly those underground.
“But since last year, security measures at those sites have increased significantly,” he said in reference to stepped up measures after what Iranian authorities said was Israel’s attempt to sabotage Iran’s missile program in 2023. Israel has never commented on this.
“There has never, ever been such tight security and extreme measures in place as there are now,” he added, suggesting that security has been significantly increased beyond previous levels after the pager explosions in Lebanon.
The IRGC is a powerful political, military and economic force in Iran with close ties to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Set up after the 1979 Islamic Revolution to protect the clerical ruling system, it has its own ground force, navy and air force that oversee Iran’s strategic weapons.
It exerts influence in the Middle East through its overseas operations arm, the Al Quds Force, by providing money, weapons, technology and training to allied groups: Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, Yemen’s Houthis and militias in Iraq.
Iran’s military uses a range of encrypted communication devices, including walkie-talkies, for secure communication, said the first Iranian source. While specific models and brands might vary, Iranian military communications equipment was often developed domestically or sourced from a combination of local and foreign suppliers, he said.
He said Iran’s armed forces have stopped using pagers for over two decades.
Tehran has developed its own military-grade radio transmissions through its defence industry to avoid reliance on foreign imports, especially due to Western sanctions imposed on Tehran over its nuclear program, he added.
However, in the past, Iran has imported communication devices from countries such as China and Russia and even Japan.
Iran and Israel have been locked in a shadow war for decades, with mutual allegations of sabotage and assassination plots.
The conflict, including between Israel and Hezbollah, has intensified in the past year in parallel with the Gaza war, which erupted after the Palestinian Hamas group attacked southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7.
Iran and Hezbollah have blamed Israel for assassinating Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah’s most senior military commander, Fuad Shukr, in Beirut a few hours earlier in July. Israel said it killed Shukr but it has not confirmed it was behind Haniyeh’s death.
Iran does not recognise Israel’s right to exist. Khamenei has previously called Israel a “cancerous tumour” that “will undoubtedly be uprooted and destroyed”.
Israel believes that Iran poses an existential threat. It also accuses Iran of secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons, though Iran denies seeking to build a nuclear bomb.
(Reuters)
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