Hezbollah Fighters, Hundreds Others Wounded as Hacked Pagers Explode in Shocking Attack Caught on Video

Hundreds of Hezbollah members were seriously injured when their communication pagers spontaneously exploded on Tuesday in what one of the group’s officials described as the “biggest security breach” it had suffered in a year.

Footage aired by regional broadcasters and shared on social media show the moment the pagers detonated. In one clip an explosion near a grocery store cashier. In another clip, an individual was knocked down by a blast while standing at a fruit stand.

Other graphic footage circulating online shows individuals bleeding and with injuries to hands and legs.

The explosions occurred across southern Lebanon as ongoing cross-border violence continues with Israel. Al Jazeera journalist Zeina Khodr reported that the pager devices appeared to have been hacked in a coordinated attack, adding that Hezbollah’s leadership members banned from using smartphones just months ago due to Israel’s ability to infiltrate those devices.

One security source in Beirut told Reuters that ambulances were seen speeding through Beirut’s southern suburbs as chaos erupted and blasts continued for up to 30 minutes after the initial detonations.

“Groups of people huddled at the entrance of buildings to check on people they knew who may have been wounded,” one witness told the news agency.

As Lebanese authorities scrambled to assess the full extent of the damage, the health ministry’s crisis operations center reportedly called on all medical workers to rush to hospitals and put out requests for blood donations, warning against using pagers in a bid to prevent further injuries.

The incident comes amid a heightened state of tension between Hezbollah and Israel, who have been locked in relentless exchanges of fire since October 2023, following the war in Gaza.

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