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east, as well as in Syria. At least 37 people were killed in the two attacks and thousands injured. The wounded included Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon. But those killed also included a 10-year-old girl and another child. As the hospitals filled up the most common wounds were mutilated hands and eyes.

“Hezbollah suffered a very serious blow on a tactical level, a very impressive and comprehensive one that affects the operational side, the cognitive side,” said Yoram Schweitzer, a former intelligence officer now at the The Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University. Peter Harling, founder of the Synaps Lab think tank added: “The targets may have been Hezbollah members, but many were caught in the midst of their ordinary lives, and in the heart of their communities.”

“This is also a breach that is extraordinarily hard to explain.” UN rights chief Volker Turk warned that the simultaneous targeting of thousands of individuals “whether civilians or members of armed groups” without knowledge as to who was around them at the time “violates international human rights law”. International humanitarian law prohibits the use of “booby traps” precisely to avoid putting civilians at grave risk and “produce the devastating scenes that continue to unfold across Lebanon”, said Lama Fakih, Middle East and North Africa Director at Human Rights Watch.

Espionage professionals have meanwhile expressed their admiration for how the operation was put together. “It’s not a technological feat,” said a person working for a European intelligence service, asking not to be named. But “it’s the result of human intelligence and heavy logistics.” The small devices, bearing the name of the firm Gold Apollo in Taiwan, were intercepted by Zionist services before their arrival in Lebanon, according to multiple security sources who spoke to AFP, asking not to be named.

But the Taiwanese company denied having manufactured them and pointed to its Hungarian partner BAC. Founded in 2022, the company is registered in Budapest. Its CEO, Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono, appears there as the only employee. The devices in question have never been on Hungarian soil, according to the Hungarian authorities. The New York Times, citing three intelligence sources, said BAC was “part of a Zionist front” with at least two other shell companies were created as well to mask the real identities of the people creating the pagers who were intelligence officers. It described the pagers as a “modern day Trojan Horse” after the wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks to enter the city of Troy in the Trojan War.

The attack comes nearly a year after the October 7 attack on Zionist entity, sparking the war in Gaza. The focus of Zionist firepower has since been on the Palestinian territory, but Hezbollah fighters and Zionist troops have exchanged fire almost daily across the border region since October, forcing thousands on both sides to flee their homes. — AFP

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the focus of the war was shifting towards Lebanon, while the government said securing the northern front was a key objective, in order to allow people evacuated from the area to return home. Schweitzer said that despite the spectacular nature of the device operation it did not represent the end of Zionist work to degrade Hezbollah. “I don’t think this impressive operation that has its tactical gains... is getting into the strategic layers yet. “It does not change the equation, it is not a decisive victory. But it sends another signal to Hezbollah, Iran and others,” he said.- AFP