Lebanon has suffered two days of seemingly random explosions of hand-held communication devices used by Hezbollah members across the country and in Syria. Analysts say this has opened a new chapter in the decades-old conflict between the two sides.After detonations of pagers and “walkie-talkie” radio handsets across two days, the death toll in Syria and Lebanon stands at 37, with thousands injured.
In keeping with many previous attacks, Israel has yet to admit responsibility or comment on events.
In a statement shortly after yesterday’s detonations, Hezbollah said: “We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible,” adding that Israel “will certainly receive its just punishment for this sinful aggression”.
Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in a mostly low-level conflict since Israel launched an assault on Gaza, which has killed more than 41,000 people in ostensible retribution for a surprise Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7.
In recent weeks, domestic turmoil, speaking directly to the political survival of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has conspired with military pressure to confront Hezbollah and the push of 60,000 or so Israeli citizens evacuated from the north after October 7 to return home.
In late July, Israel escalated its long campaign of assassinating its opponents, killing Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut and Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran almost simultaneously.
Many expected that those killings might trigger a wider regional war, one inevitably drawing Iran into a conflict that it has so far av …
