Information continues to develop about the mass explosions of Hezbollah communication devices, including pager and hand-held radios, in both Lebanon and Syria on Wednesday, as my colleague Mike Miller wrote earlier on Thursday:
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As has been widely reported, thousands of handheld pagers used by Hezbollah simultaneously exploded across Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday, leaving at least 12 people dead and roughly 2,800 injured.
On Wednesday, [the devices] used by Hezbollah detonated, leaving at least 20 people dead and more than 450 wounded. Israel would neither confirm nor deny that it was responsible for the deadly attacks.
It has also been widely reported that Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency, intercepted a large shipment of Hezbollah-bound pagers months ago and rigged them with high explosives.
However, according to a bombshell report by The New York Times on Thursday, Israel didn’t intercept and hack the pagers — it manufactured them.
The report on the NY Times’ stunning allegations continued:
The Times also said that unbeknownst to Hezbollah, Israel had been secretly manufacturing the pagers that the terrorist group had been buying for years. Taiwanese company Gold Apollo had contracted with B.A.C. Consulting — one of three shell companies that Israel created to mask the true manufacturer of the communications equipment.
Read related:
Bombshell Report: Israel Didn’t Hack Hezbollah Pagers — It Made Them As Part of Complex Ruse
On Thursday, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah responded, as the Israeli Defense Forces continued to sortie over Lebanon conducting “dozens” of air strikes against the terror group:
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The Israeli military said it carried out dozens of strikes against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon on Thursday, as both countries anxiously faced the prospect of a rapidly escalating conflict. It was one of the largest bombardments in a year of heightened fighting, according to Lebanese officials.
The airstrikes came soon after the leader of Hezbollah, the Lebanese-based militant group, vowed that “retribution will come” to Israel for the wireless device explosions that targeted his fighters and led to two days of panic in Lebanon this week.
But even as the Hezbollah chief, Hassan Nasrallah, was promising his followers in a speech that Israel would pay, Israeli jet fighters screamed overhead, setting off sonic booms in what seemed a clear show of might.
The NYT report (linked above) continued,
Making his first public remarks since the device explosions on Tuesday and Wednesday, Mr. Nasrallah acknowledged that his group had “endured a severe and cruel blow.” But he said Israel would “face just retribution and a bitter reckoning,” accusing the country of breaking “all conventions and laws.” He left his threat vague. “I will not discuss time, nor manner, nor place,” Mr. Nasrallah said. He also promised that the exploding-device attacks would not deter Hezbollah from continuing to launch rockets and drones at Israel in support of Hamas.
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The IDF released a statement about the strikes in southern Lebanon–as Hezbollah acknowledged its own attacks in northern Israel:
The Israeli military said in a statement that it had struck at least 100 rocket launchers belonging to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, along with other infrastructure sites and weapon storage facilities. For its part, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for 17 attacks in northern Israel on Thursday. It targeted barracks and military bases with rockets, missiles and drones. The Israeli military said two soldiers had been killed in combat in northern Israel but did not provide details.
As this is a developing story, RedState will provide updates as they become available.