Israel and Lebanon moved closer to all-out war on Thursday as the death toll rose to 37 in explosions involving a large number of Lebanese communications equipment, with Hezbollah’s leader vowing retaliation.
About 3,000 people were injured in the explosions across the country, Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad said at a news conference in the capital Beirut.
Hundreds of pagers used by the Hezbollah militia exploded simultaneously on Tuesday and a second wave of communications equipment, this time walkie-talkies, exploded on Wednesday.
Israel has not publicly admitted responsibility, but the country is widely considered the source of the coordinated explosions.
More serious injuries have been reported after Wednesday’s attacks because the walkie-talkies are significantly larger than pagers, Abiad said.
Most of the dead and wounded were Hezbollah members and their families, hospital sources said. Lebanese sources have said the militia group was badly hit.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called the successive explosions “a declaration of war.”
“There is no doubt that we have suffered a huge blow in terms of security and humanitarian aid, unprecedented in the history of our resistance and perhaps even in the history of conflict with the enemy,” he said.
He vowed, “in the name of the martyrs and the wounded, that the front in Lebanon will not stop until the aggression against Gaza stops, regardless of the sacrifices made.”
He called the explosions “a major terrorist operation, an act of genocide and a massacre” and vowed punishment and retaliation for this act of “unprecedented aggression”.
He also commented on Israel’s efforts to return people who fled the area because of ongoing fighting to the north.
“What you are doing will only increase the displacement of people from the north and make it impossible for them to return,” the leader of the Iran-backed militia said.
As Nasrallah spoke, Israeli warplanes broke the sound barrier over Beirut, creating sounds that sounded like bomb blasts and causing panic.
Iran sends ambassador and patients from Lebanon
Earlier, Iran evacuated its ambassador from Lebanon and 95 patients injured in pager explosions, officials said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi visited wounded diplomat Mojtaba Amani at a hospital in Tehran on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Iran evacuated 95 victims from Lebanon, most of whom had eye and hand injuries.
Hezbollah is Iran’s main non-state ally.
Israeli army agrees to ‘continuation of war’ in the north
In Israel, Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi has approved plans for “the continuation of the war” on the country’s northern front, where clashes with Hezbollah have been going on for months.
The military gave no further details in a statement Thursday, saying only that Halevi “recently completed the approval of the plans for the northern arena.”
Two Israeli soldiers killed in attack in Lebanon
Two Israeli soldiers, a 20-year-old soldier and a 43-year-old reservist, were killed in the north of the country by Lebanese shelling, the army said.
According to the Times of Israel, the reservist was killed in the western Galilee region by an explosive-laden drone fired by Hezbollah.
The younger soldier was reportedly killed in a Hezbollah attack with two anti-tank missiles on Israel’s northern border. Eight other soldiers were wounded, one seriously, the report said.
This brings the official death toll in Israel in the border area with Lebanon since October 8 to 48, including both civilians and military personnel.
During that period, approximately 600 people were killed in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters.
Fighting continued. An Israeli airstrike lightly wounded four people near the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre.
Reports: Lebanese rocket fire leaves several injured in northern Israel
At least eight people in northern Israel were injured by rocket attacks from Lebanon, according to Israeli media.
According to various media, one person was seriously injured.
The Israeli military said it had again attacked the Shiite organization’s positions in several places in Lebanon overnight, including a weapons depot. It also confirmed that rockets had been fired from Lebanon into Israel in the morning.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for an attack on an Israeli army camp, saying there had been casualties.
