Guterres Warns of Serious Risk Following Explosion of Pagers in Lebanon

Local residents gather in front of a hospital on September 18, 2024 in Baalbek, eastern Lebanon after communication devices exploded for the second consecutive day. AFP

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday said the explosion of a large number of communication devices across Lebanon confirms there is a serious risk of a dramatic escalation in Lebanon.
Guterres' warnings came while several world leaders and officials warned that the situation on the border between Israel and Hezbollah could deteriorate following the Israeli “unprecedented security breach.”
At least 12 people were killed and around 2,800 wounded in Lebanon in an attack targeting the pagers of Hezbollah members on Tuesday.
Walkie-talkies and solar equipment exploded in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon on Wednesday in an apparent second wave of attacks targeting devices. They came shortly after Israel's Cabinet made the return of displaced residents to their homes in northern Israel a formal goal of the war.
Guterres told reporters in New York on Wednesday, “I think that what has happened is particularly serious, not only because of the number of victims that it caused, but because of the indications that exist that this was triggered.”
He added, “Because obviously the logic of making all these devices explode is to do it as a preemptive strike before a major military operation...There is a serious risk of a dramatic escalation in Lebanon, and everything must be done to avoid that escalation," Guterres said.
For his part, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said on Wednesday there must be an independent, thorough and transparent investigation as to the circumstances of these mass explosions, and those who ordered and carried out such an attack must be held to account.
He noted that the simultaneous targeting of thousands of individuals, whether civilians or members of armed groups, without knowledge as to who was in possession of the targeted devices, their location and their surroundings at the time of the attack, violates international human rights law and, to the extent applicable, international humanitarian law.
The same opinion was echoed by the European Union’s foreign policy chief, who considered the situation extremely worrying.
“I can only condemn these attacks that endanger the security and stability of Lebanon and increase the risk of escalation in the region,” Josep Borrell said.
“Even if the attacks seem to have been targeted, they had heavy, indiscriminate collateral damages among civilians, including children among the victims,” he added.
Borrell said the “European Union calls on all stakeholders to avert an all-out war, which would have heavy consequences for the entire region and beyond.”
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that what happened is another act of hybrid warfare against Lebanon, which has harmed thousands of innocent people.
In a telephone call with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday expressed sorrow over pager explosions in Lebanon, saying Israel's attempts to spread conflicts in the region are extremely dangerous.
Erdogan also stated that efforts to stop Israeli aggression will continue.