The controversy continues in the search for the culprit of the explosion of 5000 pagers supplied to Hezbollah in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq that exploded simultaneously on September 17th around 3:00 pm. Various hypotheses are on the table at the moment, the most accredited is that the European headquarters of Gold Apollo, Hsu Ching-Kuang, of Taiwan is the place where an explosive compound of pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) was placed in the batteries of the new encrypted pagers used by Hezbollah activated remotely with an attack on the supply chain. The Taiwanese police have arrived at the company’s headquarters. The Hungarian headquarters is said to be managed by an advisor to the EU Commission.
Hezbollah has denied reports that the pagers have only been in use since February, and claims they have been in use since before October 7. Support for Hezbollah comes from the Axis of Resistance, Houthis, Hamas between the states of Iran and Oman and Iraq, which in a statement said it had no injuries from the attack on the pagers.
The Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was seriously injured in the attacks, and according to some sources he lost one eye and the other is seriously at risk. The son of Ali Ammar, a Hezbollah MP, also died. One of the injured who lost his eyes is the son of Sheikh Ali Ma’rouf Hijazi. The son of the MP Fadllah was also injured and was hospitalized, he was the link between politics and the armed wing of Hezbollah.
According to Sky News Arabia: “The Israeli Mossad is behind this act”. But what is even more serious is that this attack that has severely undermined the fighting wing of Hezbollah, it seems that 500 high-ranking soldiers are out of action has not improved and will not improve the electronic operation against Lebanon, it will not bring the residents of the north back to their homes and it will not change the existing reality.
On September 18, doctors and nurses arrived in Lebanon from Iraq, Iran and Jordan, the only countries that have so far concretely supported the Lebanese people. While Israel claims that only Hezbollah elements were hit, the Party of God claims that children, parliamentarians and even Hezbollah pensioners were hit. They also claim that these people were not fighting but were in civilian clothes and were carrying out their civilian lives.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health stated that there were: 12 deaths, including 2 children, a woman and medical personnel. A total of 2,700-2,800 wounded. 460 operations were performed on the wounded in the explosion of communication devices, most of them to the eyes. About 300 are still in critical condition. The number of wounded in Beirut alone is 1,850, 750 in South Lebanon and 150 in the Beqaa. 1,800 wounded needed to be hospitalized yesterday for treatment and 10% of them are critical cases.
Some wounded were transferred to Syria from the Beqaa and others to Iran. Many other pagers exploded but they were not on people, so no one was injured. There are two videos of this event, but dozens if not hundreds of similar cases. Hassan Nasrallah was not reportedly injured.
A cry of alarm came from Jordan that Israel wants to bring the entire region to war. The following statement came from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: “Israel is pushing the entire region into the abyss of a regional war. We discussed in the Arab Ministerial Committee the available political and legal options against Israel’s violations. We must prevent the most extreme Israeli government in Israel’s history from pushing the region into the abyss.”
Geo Zaltz, head of the Upper Galilee regional council: “The reality in the north is that, due to the government’s inability to make decisions, the (Israeli) borders have moved 40 kilometers to the south.”
According to pro-Likud media Channel 14, “The Israeli government will soon declare the northern front as the ‘Main War Front.’” Netanyahu has canceled his trip to the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 27 and is reportedly ready to fire Yoav Gallant from the Defense Ministry.
The entire Israeli security leadership, in addition to Netanyahu, the War Minister, the head of the Mossad, the Shin Bet and the National Security Service, are present in the military and security operations room under the War Ministry in Kyra.
The IDF Home Front Command expands its deployment in the Haifa area of northern Israel. Blood donations have begun in Haifa, to prepare for an emergency. On the evening of the 17th, Chief of Staff General Herzi Halevi led an assessment of the situation with the participation of the General Staff Forum, focusing on readiness for attack and defense in all arenas.
Israeli media reported that: “Israel is preparing for a third war in Lebanon!”, a senior official source who spoke with the heads of the northern authorities. Also the Walla Hebrew media contradict the US and confirm that Gallant informed Austin of the US about the attacks in advance that morning. “US Secretary of Defense Austin spoke by phone with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant on the morning of the 17th around 11:00, US officials confirmed to Al-Monitor. This was just 4 hours before the attack. 11:00 means that in Washington it was 6:00. In a statement, the State Department said that the US was not involved nor was it warned in advance about today’s pager attack in Lebanon; US officials are gathering information.”
On the expansion of the southern borders in fact, he notes that the IDF is moving the elite 98th division to the northern arena. The division was planned to continue fighting in the Gaza Strip, but on the last day it was decided to divert it north, towards the Lebanese border. The 36th division has already been deployed in the north for some time.
AFP reports that Blinken is arriving in Cairo as part of efforts to push for a ceasefire agreement in Gaza. But Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed says: “The Egyptian administration does not count much on Blinken’s visit to Cairo to advance the faltering ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip and the exchange of prisoners and detainees between the Palestinian resistance and the Israeli occupation, and also to resolve the crisis of the Salah al-Din Axis dossier between Cairo and Tel Aviv.” “Cairo believes that the current American moves in this dossier are essentially ‘electoral’ and unreliable, as they do not involve real pressure on the occupation prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, at a time when the proposed proposals do not reach the minimum level of consensus among the parties concerned.”
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Hassan Shoukry said in a statement on September 18: “We reject any military presence on the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing and will not accept any changes to the existing operating rules before October 7. Our position is firm regarding the Salah al-Din axis and the Rafah crossing and we maintain the situation that existed before October 7.”
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is expected to visit Israel next Sunday and Monday to discuss the rising tensions in Lebanon, two Israeli and US officials said.
On the Houthi side, the Associated Press reports that General Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, declined to provide a specific number on the number of unmanned aircraft shot down in Yemen, citing operational security. According to the Houthis, there are 9.
In the second statement from Hezbollah, it finally reads: “After examining all the facts, current data and available information on the sinful attack that took place this afternoon, we hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression, which also targeted civilians and caused the death of a number of people and the wounding of many with various injuries. Our martyrs and wounded are the symbol of our struggle and our sacrifices on the road to Jerusalem, a victory for our honorable people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and continuous support on the ground. […] This traitorous and criminal enemy will certainly receive its just punishment for this sinful aggression, whether it expects it or not, and God is witness to what we say.”
In Lebanon, former Lebanese President Michel Aoun said: “Today’s condolences are for all of us, because we are all wounded, we are all injured and we are all suffering. The greatest condolences go to the international institutions that are supposed to protect peace and justice in the world, but which remain helpless in the face of this brutality.”
Hezbollah MP Ibrahim al-Moussawi: “What happened is a real genocide. Those carrying pagers are civilian members of Hezbollah, not combatants.
What happened is a real crime against civilians. Your remarks confirm what I said before and, apart from that, killing unarmed off-duty fighters or members of a party is a crime. 3,000 wounded, many of them now disabled for life, is a genocide.”
All schools, universities and educational institutions remained closed on September 18, Beirut airport was not operational. Many flights were cancelled.
The head of the Druze Arab Unification Party, Wiam Wahhab, donated blood, as did many politicians of all religions and people from all walks of life: “Donations have been reported in Druze, Sunni and Shiite cities across Lebanon. There is a need for blood of all types, in large quantities,” reads the statement from the Lebanese Ministry of Health. The head of the Lebanese Druze party Joumblat expresses full support for the resistance and its people in Beirut, the south and the Beqaa. Lebanese Minister of Social Affairs Hector Hajjar also called on people to donate blood.
The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a resolution calling on Israel to leave the occupied Palestinian territories”, -TASS.
And now a look at the fronts between Israel, Hezbollah and Hamas updated at 15:30 on September 18.
Israeli air strikes on southern Lebanon recorded on the night of September 17 that targeted Majdel Selem. There are several deaths. Bombed the outskirts of the cities of Majdal Zoun and Shama use of artillery against the outskirts of the city of Shebaa, in southern Lebanon. On the morning of the 18th, Israeli artillery resumes bombing in the outskirts of the city of Shebaa, in southern Lebanon
Attack by Hezbollah with relative interception in the Tiberias area. Red alert in Metulla, and Al-Aramsha. The sirens sounded several times in the Upper Galilee. 15 Rockets came from Lebanon. Hezbollah claimed attacks on Israeli artillery positions in “Neve Ziv” with a series of rockets.
According to local sources: Israeli vehicles began demolishing commercial structures in the Wadi Al-Hummus neighborhood in the Jerusalem town of Sur Baher.
Militants from the martyr Omar Al-Qasim group targeted an Israeli Merkava tank with an RPG projectile near University Street in the Al-Geneina neighborhood, east of the city of Rafah, southern Gaza Strip.
Israeli vehicles stationed east of Jabalia camp intermittently fire at the lands and homes of citizens in northern Gaza. IDF announces: “4 soldiers were killed and 5 others wounded, including three seriously wounded, in Hamas shelling of a building in Tal al-Sultan in the city of Rafah, in addition to two others wounded in a separate operation.” The Israeli Finance Minister, commenting on the announcement of the killing of 4 soldiers in Rafah: A difficult and painful morning.
In Gaza City, sounds of violent explosions were heard, which turned out to be the result of an Israeli strike that blew up residential buildings in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City, followed by a shootout. Al-Quds Brigades: “We targeted with 107 guided missiles the command and control headquarters of the enemy Zionist army in Madinat Al-Zahra, south of the Netzarim axis.”
Gaza Civil Defense says there have been “eight deaths, including five children, following Israeli shelling of the Ibn al-Haytham school, which houses displaced people, in the Shuja’iya neighborhood, east of Gaza City.
Israeli artillery targets northern areas of Nuseirat camp, in the central Gaza Strip
The General Authority for Civil Affairs reported that a young man was killed by Israeli shelling, early today near the town of Ni’lin, west of Ramallah. The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said: “Enemy forces launched an arrest campaign and conducted field investigations involving 40 Palestinians in the West Bank.”
Local Palestinian sources reported that Israeli forces stormed the village of Triangle of Martyrs, south of Jenin, and gunfire was heard. And again the IDF withdrew from Al-Fawwar camp, south of Hebron, after a 13-hour assault.
Antonio Albanese e Graziella Giangiulio
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