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Raw anger and real fear on streets of Lebanon after deadly pager and radio blasts
There’s raw anger and real fear on the streets of Lebanon after two days of multiple explosions involving communication devices.
Less than 24 hours after the country was plunged into a major emergency with more than a dozen killed and nearly three thousand casualties being admitted to 90 hospitals, there was panic and deaths again.
There were numerous explosions, this time involving two-way radios being used by primarily Hezbollah operatives, security and supporters.
Thousands had gathered in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, to attend funerals for four people killed during the pager explosions just one day earlier – among them a young boy.
But barely had the funerals begun and as mourners were just beginning to pay their condolences, we heard the sound of an explosion a short distance away followed by shouts and screams.
Mourners attend the funeral of people who were killed amid the detonation of pagers across Lebanon Pic: Reuters
As we made our way to the site of the explosion, people were running in the opposite direction. We saw a crying mother holding onto her young child who was also sobbing, hurriedly trying to make their way out of the area.
A gaggle of men huddled together, one of them had blood smeared down his arm. An ambulance roared through the crowd to pick up the casualties, although as the funeral cortege continued undeterred, it was difficult to determine the numbers amidst the mayhem.
We spotted Hezbollah officials gathering handheld radios and taking them out of the area, their batteries removed.
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Fresh blasts heard at funeral for Hezbollah members
Much of our filming was curtailed by angry, aggressive men wearing all black clothes who appeared to be Hezbollah officials or supporters, although none of them identified themselves.
Many insisted we did not film what was happening in front of us by putting their hands in front of the camera lens and on one occasion attempting to snatch the mobile phone I was broadcasting on. As my colleague Chris Cunningham remonstrated with him, his mobile phone was taken and whisked away.
An image appears to show an exploded walkie-talkie inside a house, in Baalbek, east Lebanon Pic: AP
There is a lot of anxiety on display here and that is translating into red-rage anger.
‘Silence speaks volumes’
The Sky News team has been speaking to those close to the Hezbollah inner circle and there is both embarrassment and concern that the fighting group’s communications network has been so demonstrably compromised.
You won’t find many here who don’t view Israel as responsible for these attacks.
The Israeli authorities have neither confirmed or denied their involvement but as my Sky colleague Alistair Bunkall put it: “The silence speaks volumes.”
Many within Hezbollah fear – much the same way as the UN secretary general has been speculating – that this widespread attack on the group’s communications may be a prelude to a more serious attack, even a ground invasion.
But doing the social media rounds are also plenty of theories that this may be Israel’s way of forcing Hezbollah to back down.
The atmosphere in Lebanon will not have been improved on hearing the Israeli prime minister, hours after the radio explosions, vow to return his citizens to their homes in north Israel.
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Israel declares ‘new phase’ of war
About 90,000 Israelis have been displaced from the area because of almost daily shelling by Hezbollah fighters along the disputed border.
Israel’s cross border attacks into Lebanon have similarly displaced large numbers of Lebanese from its southern border – an estimated 120,000.
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How does a pager explode?
Pager explosions will cause immense embarrassment and sow chaos
Israel’s defence minister will have also sent temperatures rising with his declaration that they were entering a “new phase” of the war and were going to concentrate on the north, alongside Gaza and retrieving their hostages.
A mixture of fragments and blood stains
Where one of the two-way radios had exploded in the suburb of Dahiyeh, the street was a mixture of fragments and blood stains.
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A car bonnet had been left speckled with blood and we spotted blood smeared inside on the seats.
They appeared to be small explosions but by the end of the day, the death toll was still rising, outstripping those killed 24 hours earlier.
Along with the rising number of dead, there was a definite increase in fear and worry over the safety of any and every communications device.
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Lebanon: How did the blasts happen?
The UN Security Council will discuss the dramatic turn of events at a meeting this Friday.
But earlier on Wednesday, the Lebanese health minister Firass Abiad told us where he saw the blame.
“This is an act of aggression against non combatants… you know, community people,” he said.
“Even if some of them [victims] are combatants, this is a non-discriminatory attack….and the use of this non-discriminatory force or attacks which, will clearly affect civilians, is in my mind against international law.”
Alex Crawford reports from Beirut with cameraman Jake Britton, specialist producer Chris Cunningham and Lebanon team Jihad Jneid, Hwaida Saad and Sami Zein.