The Western press commented on the airstrikes carried out last night on targets of "Hezbollah" in Lebanon after the wave of blasts on communication devices.
On this occasion, the American "Wall Street Journal" draws attention to what was said by the leader of the Islamist group, Hassan Nasrallah, who said that the attacks against its members, carried out on two consecutive days, were tantamount to a declaration of war.
Israel launched a series of airstrikes against targets of "Hezbollah" in Lebanon shortly before Nasrallah began talking about the attacks earlier this week, which blew up pagers and walkie-talkies carried by thousands of the group's members. In these attacks, 37 people died and nearly 3,000 were injured, the newspaper said.
"This criminal act is a major terrorist operation and is tantamount to declaring war," said the leader of "Hezbollah" and promised retribution. As he spoke, rumblings were heard over Beirut several times, which Lebanon's official news agency attributed to Israeli warplanes.
Tensions along the Israeli-Lebanese border have increased, leading to heavier firefights and more aggressive Israeli operations, commented the Wall Street Journal. The Israeli government is under pressure to ensure the safety of the population in northern Israeli cities and to allow evacuated residents to return to their homes.
The British in. "Telegraph" dwells on what the leader of "Hezbollah" said that Israel has crossed "all the red lines"; in the pager blasts and also quoted Nasrallah as saying the attacks could be seen as a "declaration of war," defining the remote-controlled detonation of thousands of communication devices as "extermination.
The explosions "happened in hospitals, in pharmacies, in markets, in shops, in homes, in cars... on streets where there were many civilians, along with women and children,", he said, adding that hopes Israel will invade southern Lebanon as this will create a "historic opportunity" for "Hezbollah".
"The enemy will face harsh and fair punishment from where he expects and from where he does not expect", Nasrallah threatened at the end of his statement, quoted by the "Telegraph".
Israel has created a fictitious company that since 2022 has been supplying "Hezbollah" with pagers used in the blasts, the British newspaper said, noting that supply chain traces lead to the Hungarian firm BAC Consulting, which appears to be contracted to manufacture pagers under a license agreement from the Taiwanese company "Gold Apollo".
According to the American in. "New York Times" however, the Budapest-based company was a cover and part of a covert operation to send pagers to Hezbollah in 2022.
The British "Guardian" cites weapons experts who say the devices used in this sabotage appear to have contained small quantities of military-grade plastic explosives that can only be carefully assembled over a period of time.
"What appears to have been used is a high-grade plastic military explosive," Trevor Lawrence, head of the Munitions Test and Evaluation Center at Britain's Cranfield University, which tested bombs on Salisbury Plain, told the paper. "It only takes about 5 grams, but the tricky part is putting them inside the pagers and making sure they still work," he added.
Military plastic explosives are not commercially available, but they are capable of killing and causing significant injury if they are near a person, especially the head and torso, Lawrence said, as quoted by the Guardian. ;.
Among the victims are fighters and operatives of "Hezbollah", but also civilians, as there were explosions in supermarkets and hospitals, and during the funeral of three members of the Islamist group, walkie-talkies also exploded. The day before, a child was killed in an explosion of pagers.
The paper said the pagers beeped with a fake message from a ``Hezbollah'' commander, then fell silent before exploding while many users had already raised the devices to their faces to read the text.
There are examples of intelligence companies taking control, such as the secretly owned CIA and West German intelligence company "Crypto", which during the Cold War and for the next two decades provided diplomatic communications for 40% of the world's embassies , notes in. "Guardian".
But controlling a company that manufactures secret weapons in large quantities is something different and raises questions about whether remote detonation devices are legal under international law, the newspaper commented.
According to the "Guardian" a deliberately confusing network of frontmen, some of whom are based in Europe, appears to be behind the delivery of the devices.
Under the headline "Fear grips Lebanon after deadly twin blasts of pagers and radios" the American magazine "Time" notes that panic has gripped entire areas of Lebanon - especially among Shia communities where there are representatives of ``Hezbollah'', while the devices, designed to be held in the hand and close to the face, have ripped off fingers from the hands and put out the eyes of their owners .
According to the magazine, many have likened the attacks to akin to "terrorism," both because of their impact on the Lebanese population and because of the deeply disturbing manner in which they were carried out.
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement, but numerous media reports and statements by security officials point the finger at Tel Aviv, Time magazine concludes.
The American in. "USA Today" notes that the airline "Qatar Airways" has even banned pagers and walkie-talkies on its flights from Beirut after the communications devices blew up in Lebanon.
The French in. "Mond" draws attention to the panic that gripped the southern suburbs of Beirut. The members of "Hezbollah" threw their phones on the ground, worried that all of the Shiite group's communications equipment had been rigged with explosives. Residents of the Lebanese capital looked anxiously at the sky, where Israeli reconnaissance drones were spotted, the newspaper said.
The series of attacks for which the non-governmental organization "Human Rights Watch" accused Israel and which were declared "indiscriminate and illegal" according to international law, they managed to instill fear and create paranoia among the population, commented in "Mond", noting that Israel thus achieved tactical success.
In the ranks of "Hezbollah" the question is also raised whether this operation is a prelude to an Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon or simply a warning to the group to stop its attacks on Israel, the French newspaper points out.
The American daily in the "Washington Post" in turn notes that the Israelis did not inform the US of the specifics of the attack before it was carried out, but reported it to Washington afterwards through intelligence channels.
An important question hangs over the unprecedented operation: Why now? Israel's government is reeling and Washington is frantically trying to prevent a wider conflict, prompting experts and officials to wonder whether the attack was well-timed and what it signals about Israel's intentions in Lebanon. commented the newspaper.
In turn in. "New York Times" draws attention to what was said by the leader of "Hezbollah", who said that Israel will face retribution after the explosions in Lebanon. Hassan Nasrallah refuses to say when and how Hezbollah will retaliate, the daily reported.
"No matter what the future holds for the region, the resistance in Lebanon will not stop supporting the people of Gaza," Nasrallah stressed, quoted by the "New York Times". The newspaper notes that in recent days, Israeli officials have increasingly hinted that they intend to step up military operations in Lebanon to repel "Hezbollah".