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Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged Thursday that this week's deadly explosive attacks in Lebanon on the militant group's communications devices were a "severe blow," while contending that Israel had crossed a "red line" in carrying out the operation.
The attacks killed at least 32 people and wounded an additional 3,000 as unsuspecting Hezbollah militants and others answered messages on their pagers and tried to carry on conversations on their walkie-talkies, only to have them explode in their hands.
The attacks, on Tuesday and Wednesday, were widely believed to be carried out by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, although Israel has neither confirmed nor denied being involved.
"Yes, we were subjected to a huge and severe blow," Nasrallah said. "The enemy crossed all boundaries and red lines."
As usual, Nasrallah spoke by video from an undisclosed location. Iran-backed Hezbollah has typically convened a rally for supporters to watch his speeches on a big screen, but this time it did not.
Because of the lethal devastation from the attacks, Lebanon has banned passengers flying from Beirut's international airport from carrying pagers or walkie-talkies on board their flights. The ban also applies to checked and carry-on luggage, as well as cargo.
In Paris, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States does not want "to see any escalatory actions" in Lebanon that make it more difficult to reach a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas to halt fighting in the Gaza Strip.
"There is a real problem that needs to be resolved when it comes to northern Israel and southern Lebanon, and that is the fact that since October 8 [the day after the war in Gaza started], Hezbollah has been firing rockets into Israel. Israel has been firing back," Blinken said.
"The population in both northern Israel and southern Lebanon has had to flee their homes, and we all want to see them be able to go back to their homes, and that requires a secure environment."
Security experts in the Middle East and the United States told U.S. media outlets this week they believe that somehow Israeli agents intercepted the shipment of the pagers from a company in the Hungarian capital of Budapest to add the explosives to the devices before they arrived in Lebanon and were handed out by Hezbollah.
But a New York Times account disputed that scenario. The newspaper reported that its sources in the intelligence community said that Israel created a front company, B.A.C. Consulting, to manufacture the electronic devices and incorporate batteries laced with the explosive PETN and links so the devices could be detonated remotely.
The company produced some ordinary pagers for sale on the commercial market, the newspaper said, but the singular aim was to manufacture the lethal devices to deploy in Israel's fight against Hezbollah.
The first batches of the pagers were shipped to Lebanon in the summer of 2022 in small numbers, but production was quickly ramped up after Nasrallah denounced the use of cell phones because they could be tracked by Israeli intelligence and the low-tech pagers and walkie-talkies could not.
Hsu Ching-Kuang, founder of Taiwan-based manufacturer Gold Apollo, told reporters Wednesday his company did not manufacture the pagers, even though its corporate markings were on them when the remains of the exploded devices were examined Tuesday.
He said Gold Apollo had authorized its brand to be used on devices produced and sold by B.A.C. in Budapest.
Meanwhile, Israel's military said Thursday it carried out strikes against seven Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon, while also announcing the arrest of an Israeli citizen suspected of involvement in an Iran-backed plot to kill Israeli officials.
Israeli authorities said in a statement that the person arrested was a businessman with connections in Turkey who attended at least two meetings in Iran and that potential targets of the plot included Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
The arrest took place last month, the statement said.
In addition to the Israeli strikes Thursday, the military also reported several drones crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory.
Israeli defense chief Gallant said Thursday he spoke by telephone with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin about the situation in the region, including "Israel's defense against Hezbollah threats."
The Pentagon said Austin reiterated "unwavering U.S. support for Israel in the face of threats" from Iran, Hezbollah and other Iranian partners in the region.
"The secretary emphasized the U.S. commitment to deterring regional adversaries and efforts to de-escalate tensions across the region," a Pentagon spokesperson said.
The pager and walkie-talkie attacks followed Israel's announcement that it was broadening its goals in the war against Hamas militants in Gaza to include the securing of northern Israel from Hezbollah rocket attacks.
Jeff Seldin and Nike Ching contributed to this report. Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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