Hezbollah vows to punish Israel after deadly pager blasts

Hezbollah vows to punish Israel after deadly pager blasts
Hundreds of people were wounded when Hezbollah members’ paging devices exploded simultaneously across Lebanon on Sept. 17. (AFP)
Short Url
Updated 18 September 2024
Follow

Hezbollah vows to punish Israel after deadly pager blasts

Hezbollah vows to punish Israel after deadly pager blasts
  • The attack came just hours after Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attacks
  • Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah will make a previously unscheduled speech at 5:00 p.m.

Beirut, Lebanon: Hezbollah vowed on Wednesday to punish Israel for a deadly attack in which hundreds of paging devices used by the militant group’s members exploded almost simultaneously across Lebanon.
There was no immediate comment from Israel on the wave of explosions that killed nine people, including the 10-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member, and wounded around 2,800 others.
The attack came just hours after Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attacks to include its fight against the Palestinian militant group’s ally Hezbollah along the country’s border with Lebanon.
“We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression,” the group said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that Israel “will certainly receive its just punishment for this sinful aggression.”
On Wednesday, the group vowed in another statement on Telegram it would continue its fight in support of Gaza while reiterating it would avenge Tuesday’s blasts.
“This path is ongoing and separate from the difficult reckoning that the criminal enemy must await for its massacre on Tuesday,” the group said in a statement on Telegram.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah will make a previously unscheduled speech at 5:00 p.m. (1400 GMT) on Thursday, the group said.
The wave of blasts killed nine people, including a girl, and wounded 2,800 others, 200 of them critically, Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said Tuesday.
“This was more than lithium batteries being forced into override,” said Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute.
“A small plastic explosive was almost certainly concealed alongside the battery, for remote detonation via a call or page.”
Israel’s spy agency “Mossad infiltrated the supply chain,” he said.
The influx of so many casualties all at once overwhelmed hospitals in Hezbollah strongholds.
At one hospital in Beirut’s southern suburbs, an AFP correspondent saw people being treated in a car park on thin mattresses, with medical gloves on the ground and ambulance stretchers covered in blood.
“In all my life I’ve never seen someone walking on the street... and then explode,” said Musa, a resident of the southern suburbs, requesting to be identified only by his first name.
The 10-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member was killed in east Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley when his pager exploded, the family and a source close to the group said.
A son of Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Ammar was also among the dead, a source close to the group told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Tehran’s ambassador in Beirut was wounded but his injuries were not serious, Iranian state media reported.
The blasts hit Hezbollah strongholds across Lebanon and dealt a heavy blow to the militant group, which already had concerns about the security of its communications after losing several key commanders to targeted air strikes in recent months.
A source close to Hezbollah, asking not to be identified, told AFP that “the pagers that exploded concern a shipment recently imported by Hezbollah of 1,000 devices” which appear to have been “sabotaged at source.”
After The New York Times reported the pagers had been ordered from Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo, the company denied any link to the products.
Early Tuesday, Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the Gaza war to include its fight against Hezbollah along its border with Lebanon.
To date, Israel’s objectives have been to crush Hamas and bring home the hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the October 7 attacks.
“The political-security cabinet updated the goals of the war” to include “the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
Since October, the unabating exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Hamas ally Hezbollah in Lebanon have killed hundreds of mostly fighters in Lebanon, and dozens including soldiers on the Israeli side.
They have also forced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border to flee their homes.
On Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that failing a political solution, “military action” would be “the only way left to ensure the return” of displaced residents to the border area.
Major airlines Lufthansa and Air France on Tuesday announced suspensions of flights to Tel Aviv, Tehran and Beirut until Thursday.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived back in the region at dawn on Wednesday to try to revive stalled ceasefire talks for the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
After months of mediated negotiations failed to pin down a ceasefire, Washington said it was still working with mediators Qatar and Egypt to finalize an agreement.
US officials have expressed increasing frustration with Israel as Netanyahu has publicly rejected US assessments that a deal is nearly complete and has insisted on an Israeli military presence on the Egypt-Gaza border.
The October 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,252 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not provide a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.
On Tuesday, UN member states were debating a draft resolution demanding an end to the Israeli occupation of all Palestinian territories within 12 months.
General Assembly resolutions are not binding, but Israel has already denounced the new text as “disgraceful.”


Israel’s Netanyahu says Israel has taken out Nasrallah’s successors

Israel’s Netanyahu says Israel has taken out Nasrallah’s successors
Updated 27 sec ago
Follow

Israel’s Netanyahu says Israel has taken out Nasrallah’s successors

Israel’s Netanyahu says Israel has taken out Nasrallah’s successors
“We’ve degraded Hezbollah’s capabilities,” Netanyahu said

JERUSALEM: Israeli forces have taken out the would-be successors of late Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday, without naming them.
“We’ve degraded Hezbollah’s capabilities. We took out thousands of terrorists, including Nasrallah himself and Nasrallah’s replacement, and the replacement of the replacement,” Netanyahu said in a pre-recorded video message.
Earlier, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Hashem Safieddine, the man expected to replace the slain Nasrallah, had probably been “eliminated.” It was not immediately clear whom Netanyahu meant by the “replacement of the replacement.”

Russia to reopen embassy in Yemen’s Aden early next year

Russia to reopen embassy in Yemen’s Aden early next year
Updated 27 sec ago
Follow

Russia to reopen embassy in Yemen’s Aden early next year

Russia to reopen embassy in Yemen’s Aden early next year
  • Charge d’Affaires of the Russian Embassy in Yemen Evgeny Kudrov and Yemen’s FM Shaya Al-Zindani said the embassy would reopen at the beginning of next year
  • Kudrov also expressed his government’s support for the internationally recognized government of Yemen

AL-MUKALLA: Russia will reopen its embassy in Aden, Yemen’s interim capital, in early 2025. Coming nearly a decade after it closed, the news has boosted hopes for the reintroduction of foreign diplomatic missions in the southern city.

During a meeting in Riyadh on Tuesday, Charge d’Affaires of the Russian Embassy in Yemen Evgeny Kudrov and Yemen’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Shaya Al-Zindani said the embassy would reopen “at the beginning” of next year.

Kudrov also expressed his government’s support for the internationally recognized government of Yemen.

An official at the Yemen Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who asked to remain anonymous, said Russia had taken “serious” steps toward reopening the embassy. He added that India and some Gulf Cooperation Council states might follow suit by opening embassies in Aden.

Foreign diplomatic missions in Sanaa, Yemen’s official capital, were closed when the Houthis took power in the country a decade ago.

The city of Aden has experienced relative calm in recent years following the formation of the Presidential Leadership Council, which brought together rival Yemeni factions.

Shortly after being liberated from the Houthis in mid-2015 it experienced anarchy, with explosions, assassinations and bloody clashes. However, the Yemeni government says it is now safe and that security and military forces are willing to protect foreign diplomatic missions that relocate there. 

Russia’s announcement came a day after the Kremlin denied a Wall Street Journal report claiming that arms dealer Viktor Bout, released from the US during a prisoner swap in 2022, is negotiating a deal with the Yemen Houthi militia to provide them with small arms, including Kalashnikov assault rifles.

Last month, US Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking expressed concern over news reports that Russia was in talks with the Houthis about supplying them with advanced anti-ship missiles.

Meanwhile, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on Monday sanctioned Hamed Abdullah Hussein Al-Ahmer, a Yemeni MP and banking, oil, and telecom tycoon, as well as several other individuals and businesses, for their support of Hamas.

According to OFAC, Al-Ahmer, who is based in Turkey, is a major Hamas supporter and an agent for the group’s investments, which have which generated over half a billion US dollars.

Al-Ahmer is president of the Istanbul-based League of Parliamentarians for Al-Quds, which was founded in 2015 and operates banking, oil, media and telecom businesses in Yemen, Turkey and elsewhere.

“He is a key member of Hamas’ once-secret investment portfolio, which at its peak managed over $500 million worth of assets enabling Hamas’s leaders to live in luxury outside the Palestinian territories despite the real humanitarian needs of the people of Gaza,” the OFAC said.

Al-Ahmer has not officially responded to the US sanctions but on Monday, the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks, he appeared on video expressing his support for the “resistance” of people in Palestine and Lebanon.

“We applaud the Palestinian and Gazan people’s resilience in the face of an attack by the Zionist destruction machine, which is supported by America and Europe,” he said.


Turkish lawmakers discuss Mideast in closed session after Erdogan’s Israel claim

Turkish lawmakers discuss Mideast in closed session after Erdogan’s Israel claim
Updated 6 min 58 sec ago
Follow

Turkish lawmakers discuss Mideast in closed session after Erdogan’s Israel claim

Turkish lawmakers discuss Mideast in closed session after Erdogan’s Israel claim
  • Israel has also not commented publicly on Tuesday’s closed-door parliamentary session in Ankara
  • Foreign and defense ministers made presentations at the closed-door session on the risk of the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon widening further

ANKARA: Turkiye’s lawmakers held a closed-door session on Tuesday to discuss the spread of war in the Middle East, a week after President Tayyip Erdogan made an unsubstantiated claim that Israel eventually aimed to encroach on Turkish territory.
Israel has not publicly responded to Erdogan’s claim, which analysts and opposition lawmakers say is far-fetched and is intended primarily to deflect public attention away from Turkiye’s economic woes.
Israel has also not commented publicly on Tuesday’s closed-door parliamentary session in Ankara, which is titled “Israel’s occupation of Lebanon and developments in the region.”
Foreign and defense ministers made presentations at the closed-door session — which was requested by the opposition — on the risk of the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon widening further.
NATO member Turkiye is among the world’s sharpest critics of what it calls Israel’s illegal and reckless wars with armed groups Hamas and Hezbollah. It halted trade with Israel and applied to join a genocide case against it at the World Court.
Israel rejects the genocide case and Turkiye’s criticism, saying it is locked in an existential struggle with militant Islamist groups backed by Iran that are sworn to Israel’s destruction.
Last week Erdogan told parliament that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was acting out his dream of a “utopia” and “promised land” for Israel.
“After Lebanon, the next place on which Israel will set its eyes will be our homeland,” he told parliament’s opening session, attended by dozens of foreign ambassadors and his cabinet, without providing evidence.

CHAOS AT BORDERS
Devlet Bahceli, leader of Erdogan’s main ally MHP, said on Tuesday it was “likely that chaos in neighboring countries will reach our borders and that Israel will harass Turkiye” in the near future.
But Ozgur Ozel, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), dismissed such talk.
“It’s unreasonable to think Netanyahu will conduct an assault on Turkiye, which is a NATO member and has a great army,” Ozel told his party.
Later, after hearing the ministers’ presentation, Ozel said he had not been convinced by them about any alleged Israeli threat against Turkiye.
“They didn’t say anything that we don’t know,” he said, reiterating his view that Erdogan had raised the issue in order to stop Turks focusing on “unemployment, inflation, poverty and high prices.”
Polls show Turks strongly back the government’s hard line on Israel.
Some Turkish protesters in recent days — marking the anniversary of the beginning of the war on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel — demanded that Erdogan take more action.
Critics have raised questions over whether Turkiye is still effectively shipping goods to Israel despite the May trade ban, given official data show exports to Palestinian territories have leapt six-fold so far this year.


US slaps sanctions on Sudan paramilitary leader

US slaps sanctions on Sudan paramilitary leader
Updated 56 min 20 sec ago
Follow

US slaps sanctions on Sudan paramilitary leader

US slaps sanctions on Sudan paramilitary leader
  • Algoney Hamdan Dagalo Musa was sanctioned “for his involvement in RSF efforts to procure weapons and other military materiel,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said
  • His actions have fueled war in Sudan “and brutal RSF atrocities against civilians”

WASHINGTON: The United States on Tuesday announced sanctions against a senior leader in war-torn Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for his role in obtaining weapons for the paramilitary organization.
Tens of thousands of people have died and millions have been displaced since war broke out in April 2023 between Sudan’s army and the RSF after their head generals refused a plan to integrate.
Algoney Hamdan Dagalo Musa was sanctioned “for his involvement in RSF efforts to procure weapons and other military materiel that have enabled the RSF’s ongoing operations in Sudan,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
His actions have fueled war in Sudan “and brutal RSF atrocities against civilians, which have included war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing,” Miller said.
The US Treasury said that as a result of such sanctions “all property and interests in property of the designated persons... that are in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons are blocked and must be reported.”
The United States has led diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting in Sudan but has seen limited success and leverage, with RSF commanders unlikely to hold major assets in the West that would be affected by sanctions.


France, Qatar deliver urgent aid to Lebanon, foreign minister says

France, Qatar deliver urgent aid to Lebanon, foreign minister says
Updated 08 October 2024
Follow

France, Qatar deliver urgent aid to Lebanon, foreign minister says

France, Qatar deliver urgent aid to Lebanon, foreign minister says
  • “If we don’t do anything, then Lebanon tomorrow could resemble what Syria has become,” Jean-Noel Barrot told lawmakers in parliament
  • French and Qatari military planes delivered some 27 metric tons of medicines and basic necessities

PARIS: France and Qatar delivered urgent humanitarian aid to Lebanon on Tuesday, France’s foreign minister said, as Paris pushes for broader humanitarian efforts and a ceasefire in the country.
“If we don’t do anything, then Lebanon tomorrow could resemble what Syria has become,” Jean-Noel Barrot told lawmakers in parliament. “(That is), a hub of instability for smuggling, terrorism and a point of departure for a large migration of civilians seeking refuge in Europe.”
French and Qatari military planes delivered some 27 metric tons of medicines and basic necessities, including blankets and hygiene kits, diplomatic sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Paris has historical ties with Lebanon and has been working with the United States in trying to secure a ceasefire in the Middle Eastern country. Those talks stalled at the end of September when Israel heavily bombed Beirut’s southern suburbs, killing longtime Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
It has since launched a ground offensive displacing thousands of people. Tuesday’s Franco-Qatari aid aims to support local aid groups to help the wounded and displaced.
The two sides must accept the ceasefire proposal, Barrot said, to “give peace and negotiations a chance to guarantee the sovereignty of Lebanon and security for Israel.”
France is also working to put together a conference on Lebanon soon that will center around three pillars: humanitarian aid, reinforcing the Lebanese army and discussing the ongoing political vacuum in the country, Barrot said.