Reportage
A tense fear grips Lebanon after explosions, deemed ‘war crimes’ by experts
What seems clear right now is that Hezbollah has lost that aura of impenetrability and closed ranks that has always distinguished it, an aspect recognized even by its staunchest opponents.
The attack against Hezbollah in Lebanon continued with a second phase. On Wednesday, 14 more died and about 500 were wounded in explosions similar to those that killed 12 people and injured 3,000 others on Tuesday. This time it wasn’t pagers, but walkie talkies issued to military and non-military members of Hezbollah.
On Tuesday, in various areas of Lebanon with a high density of Shiites and in Syria, thousands of pagers had exploded at the same time. The toll was about 3,000 injured and 14 dead. The pagers, which most likely had explosives inserted which were detonated through specific radio frequencies, were from the Taiwanese brand Gold Apollo, but, according to the parent company, were produced by the Budapest-based BacConsuting. In an official statement, Viktor Orban claimed the pagers had never been in Hungary. Investigations are being pursued to find out the route these devices took, as they were almost certainly tampered with at a later point.
On Wednesday, just like on Tuesday, Beirut was once again crowded with ambulances, army trucks, police, firefighters and helicopters. The hospital in Marjayouneh, South Lebanon, made a public appeal for donations of the rarer O RH negative and AB positive blood types. The entire country and Lebanese hospitals were, and continue to be, on high alert. The blasts mostly caused damage to the eyes, hands, abdomen and genitals.
Between 15 and 20 explosions were recorded on Wednesday in the southern suburbs of Beirut – Hezbollah's enclave in the capital – resulting in a number of apartment fires. There was similar news from Saida, south and west Lebanon and the Beka'a valley. The exploding walkie talkies, fewer in number than the pagers but most likely containing more explosives because they were larger in size, also damaged houses and cars, with fires in the south and west of the country and in Beirut.
Explosions also took place in Iraq, at the headquarters of the Shiite al-Hashd al-Shaabi militia in Mosul, at the same time as those in Lebanon. Iraq announced that it had tightened border controls to prevent infiltration.
The Israeli government has made no comment on Tuesday's and Wednesday's explosions, but both Lebanon and Hezbollah have publicly blamed Tel Aviv.
In addition to the level of tension that you could cut with a knife – hard to even describe – a new awareness seems to have taken shape in Lebanon after this blow to Hezbollah, both military and at a deep psychological level. Lebanon and the whole world have seen that Hezbollah had major weaknesses.
“Surely there must have been something that didn't work in their communications. And surely there must be moles on the inside, otherwise it’s impossible to explain everything that happened,” we heard from family members of the victims outside Geitawe Hospital, one of many in Beirut whose emergency room was and remained overcrowded. Others spoke of Mossad infiltrators. What seems clear right now is that Hezbollah has lost that aura of impenetrability and closed ranks that has always distinguished it, an aspect recognized even by its staunchest opponents.
In addition to a military and strategic defeat, it now faces an enormous internal problem regarding security, communications, penetrability. It’s a very heavy blow, coming less than two months after the assassination in Beirut of Fuad Shukr, second-in-command of the party-militia, by an Israeli drone, a few hours before that of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. On Thursday afternoon, Hassan Nasrallah was expected to deliver a highly anticipated speech in which he would give the directions to follow for the days ahead.
The attack has been called a “war crime” by analysts, as it violates the provisions of the 1949 Geneva Convention, which bans the targeting of civilians: detonating pagers supplied to Hezbollah members (not only military but also political and logistical personnel) indiscriminately, in non-military settings and among civilians, is considered a crime.
On the other side of the border, where fighting continues unabated, as the IDF expanded its deployment on the northern front, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that “we are in a new phase of the conflict that requires courage, determination and perseverance.” On Wednesday afternoon, Hezbollah claimed three strikes in Nafeh Zeif, Habouchite (in the Golan) and Beit Halal, all against military targets. The Israeli Air Force bombed Kfarchouba, Halta and Adaysse, civilian villages, but caused no casualties.
The United Nations condemned the attack in Lebanon and called an extraordinary meeting for Thursday on the Lebanese-Israeli conflict. Beirut's foreign minister, Abou Habib, spoke of the explosions as an “omen of a wider war.” Also on Wednesday, Germany announced it was cutting off arms supplies to Israel; the latter, however, is disregarding all international warnings, even those coming from the top leadership of the U.S. Democratic Party.
There has been no comment from the Italian government on the Lebanese attacks; however, on Wednesday, Italy, along with 42 other countries, abstained on the Palestinian resolution at the UN that calls for Israel to “[bring] to an end without delay its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which constitutes a wrongful act of a continuing character entailing its international responsibility, and do so no later than 12 months from the adoption of the present resolution.”
War is closer than ever. Everyone is expecting it. Lebanon is on high alert and there is a belief among the people that this time it won’t be possible to avoid it. Schools remained closed on Wednesday but reopened on Thursday, despite the detonations. All hospitals, military and civilian bodies are in a state of highest alert.
A war in Lebanon would inevitably have a domino effect throughout the region and see the involvement of powers such as Iran, the U.S. and Russia. Nasrallah's words on Thursday and the intentions of the Netanyahu government – which has deployed more troops to the border – will weigh heavily for the fate of Lebanon and that of the entire region.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/presagio-di-un-conflitto on 2024-09-19