Rinson Jose, 39, was the owner of a Bulgaria shell company that reportedly paid a British firm to obtain the pagers. So far, there is no indication that he was aware of the plot to detonate communication devices in Lebanon, which killed 39 people in two days.
In a significant development, top Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon. Aqil, a senior leader in the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group, played a key role in the organization’s military operations.
Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil was reportedly killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut, escalating tensions between Hezbollah and Israel. Aqil, a key figure in Hezbollah's military operations, marks a significant loss for the group.
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"In the new phase of the war, there are significant opportunities but also significant risks. Hezbollah feels that it is being persecuted and the sequence of military actions will continue," Gallant said in a statement.
The attacks on Hezbollah communications equipment sowed fear across Lebanon, with people abandoning electronic devices for fear of carrying bombs in their pockets.
Deadly Israeli attacks that blew up Hezbollah radios and pagers crossed all red lines, the leader of the heavily armed Lebanese movement said on Thursday, in a speech broadcast as sonic booms from Israeli warplanes shook buildings in Beirut.
According to several media reports, Israel had reserved the pager blasts as an opening blow to Hezbollah in case of an all-out war. However, these plans were accelerated when a couple of Hezbollah members became suspicious of the plot and raised the matter with their superiors.
Hundreds of people were wounded in fresh blasts involving communication devices used by Lebanon's Hezbollah group, a security source said. Many of the wounds were to the stomach and hands, the source said.
In addition to demanding withdrawal, the resolution urges member states to cease importing products from Israeli settlements and halt the transfer of arms to Israel, where there is a risk of use in Palestinian territories.
The walkie-talkies which went off on Wednesday were purchased by Hezbollah five months ago, around the same time that the pagers were bought. Images of the exploded walkie-talkies showed an inside panel labelled "ICOM" and "made in Japan."
Multiple explosions occurred Wednesday at the site of a funeral for three Hezbollah members and a child killed by exploding pagers the day before. Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV reported explosions in multiple areas of Lebanon, which it said were the result of walkie-talkies detonating.
Health Minister Firas Abiad said that two-thirds of the wounded needed hospitalization, adding that the scale of the incident was far greater than the thousands wounded in the massive Beirut Port explosion in 2020.
Lebanon's Hezbollah said on Wednesday it attacked Israeli artillery positions with rockets in the first cross-border attack since the Tuesday pager blasts.
A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo months before the Tuesday explosions. Images of destroyed pagers showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo.
Around 3,000 of the pagers used in Lebanon exploded when Israel reportedly sent a "cryptic message", killing nine people and wounding thousands. This could be one of the most advanced warfare against Hezbollah, which has sworn punishment against Israel.
A Hezbollah official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the detonation of the pagers was the "biggest security breach" the group had been subjected to in nearly a year of war with Israel.
Hezbollah is a powerful part of the "Axis of Resistance", an alliance of Iran-backed groups across the Middle East that also includes the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which ignited the Gaza war by attacking Israel on October 7.
"Amani has a superficial injury and is currently under observation in a hospital," Fars quoted a source as saying. More than 1,000 people across Lebanon, including Hezbollah fighters and medics, were wounded on Tuesday when the pagers they use to communicate exploded.
Thousand of people were wounded in Beirut’s suburbs and other parts of Lebanon after their handheld pagers exploded Tuesday, Lebanese state media and security officials said.
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