Middle East updates: Hezbollah chief reports 'severe blow'

A preliminary investigation by Lebanese authorities has found that the handheld communications devices that blew up this week had been implanted with explosives before they entered the country.

The findings were relayed in a letter sent to the UN Security Council by Lebanon's UN mission late on Thursday, which was seen by multiple news agencies including Reuters and AFP.

"Initial investigations showed that the targeted devices were professionally booby-trapped... before arriving in Lebanon, and were detonated by sending emails to the devices," the letter read.

The Security Council is due to convene on Friday to discuss the explosions.

US President Joe Biden believes a diplomatic resolution to the tensions between Israel and Hezbollah is both "achievable" and "urgent."

"The president continues to believe that we have to be optimistic and a diplomatic resolution is the best way," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told a briefing late on Thursday.

The Israeli military said it launched fresh strikes on southern Lebanon on Thursday evening — the second round of strikes for the day.

It said that the Israeli Air Force attacked "terrorist infrastructure" and a weapons cache in southern Lebanon while Israeli artillery also fired on the Naqoura area.

Multiple Lebanese security sources also reported major Israeli airstrikes, the Reuters and dpa news agencies said.

The US State Department has reiterated calls for all parties in the Middle East to not escalate tensions.

"We will continue to stand by Israel's right to defend itself, but we don't want to see any party escalate this conflict, period," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told a regular press briefing. 

"We have been engaged in the region for some time, and of course, since October 7th we have been engaged to try to bring down tensions. But ultimately, yes, every country is responsible, and every entity is responsible for the actions that they take." 

Miller went on to mention Hezbollah specifically.

"[Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah could stop the terrorist attacks across Israel, and I guarantee you, if he did that, we would be impressing upon Israel the need to maintain calm on their end. Bottom line is, he hasn't stopped those terrorist attacks," Miller said.

"So as long as Hezbollah is launching terrorist attacks across the border, of course Israel is going to launch military action to defend itself, as any country would."

Bulgaria's Interior Ministry and security services said they are investigating Norta Global after media outlets in Bulgaria and Hungary reported that the Sofia-based company sold Hezbollah the communications devices that exploded this week.

However, Bulgarian authorities rejected claims that the devices had been shipped through the country.

"No customs operations with communication equipment (pagers) have been carried out through the territory of Bulgaria," the Bulgaria's state agency for national security said in a statement carried by the Associated Press.

Meanwhile, Bulgarian broadcaster bTV reported that €1.6 million ($1.8 million) related to the sale of the pagers passed through Bulgaria to Hungary. Hungarian company BAC Consulting was linked to the manufacture of the devices.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged against "escalatory actions by any party" in the Middle East after talks with his French counterpart in Paris on Thursday.

"France and the United States are united in calling for restraint and urging de-escalation when it comes to the Middle East in general and when it comes to Lebanon in particular," Blinken said.

"We don't want to see any escalatory actions by any party" that would endanger a potential cease-fire in Gaza, he added.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Hezbollah will "pay an increasing price" as the war enters a new phase.

"In the new phase of the war there are significant opportunities but also significant risks. Hezbollah feels that it is being persecuted and the sequence of military actions will continue," Gallant said in a statement on Thursday evening.

"Our goal is to ensure the safe return of Israel's northern communities to their homes. As time goes by, Hezbollah will pay an increasing price."

He did not specifically mention the explosions of pagers and other communications devices that killed dozens of people and injured thousands more earlier this week.

At least two Israeli soldiers "fell in combat" near the border with Lebanon, the Israeli military said.

Israeli media N12 News said one of the soldiers was killed by a drone and the other by an anti-tank missile fired by Hezbollah.

Hezbollah announced four strikes in the border area while the militant group's leader Hassan Nasrallah made a televised speech on Thursday afternoon.

Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah said this week's attack on communications devices dealt a major blow to the group, adding that it amounts to "a declaration of war."

"Yes, we were subjected to a huge and severe blow," he said.

"The enemy crossed all boundaries and red lines."

Nasrallah said an internal investigation was underway.

The Hezbollah leader's speech was, as usual, broadcast via video from an undisclosed location.

Witnesses in Beirut told the Reuters news agency that Israeli fighter jets flew low over the city at the time the speech was broadcast. Lebanese state media also reported that Israeli jets broke the sound barrier over the capital.

DW spoke with Janina Dill, a co-director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, about the pager and walkie-talkie explosions in Lebanon, whether they conform to international rules of warfare. 

She said the principles of "distinction" and "precaution" were particularly in play in such a case. Distinction is trying to ensure hit military targets, so far as this is possible, while precaution is trying to limit civilian casualties, as much as is possible. 

"Placing a small explosive device directly on the body of a fighter in some sense is the ideal of an attack from the point of view of international law," Dill said, given how directly a combatant would be targeted. "Committing hundreds of those attacks simultaneously at the same time, on the other hand, is almost impossible to reconcile with international law."

"For instance, the principle of precaution demands that for each explosion, the anticipated civilian harm would be minimized as much as possible, for instance through the timing of the attack," she said. "This is obviously very difficult to achieve when many attacks must go off simultaneously." 

She said that given the nature of the attacks, "a meaningful proportionality calculation wouldn't have been possible, which is why the operation poses very, very serious challenges under international law." 

Dill said she believed an investigation into the incident could prove helpful not just in the immediate term, but also so that states become more aware of the potential weaponization of personal communication devices in the modern age. 

"Given how much terror this operation must have caused the civilian population in Lebanon, it will be really critical to clarify and strengthen states' commitment to their existing legal obligations and to clarify how exactly they apply in this particular context."

Two major European carriers have extended a suspension of flights to various Middle East destinations, citing the current security situation as the reason.

The decisions come as regional tensions soar following deadly explosions of communications devices in Lebanon this week.

The unprecedented attacks, which Lebanese militant group Hezbollah blames on Israel, have fuelled fears of an all-out war engulfing the region.

German group Lufthansa said flights to Tel Aviv and Tehran would be canceled until September 24 due to "the current situation." 

Meanwhile, flights to Beirut will be suspended until October 26.

France's main carrier Air France extended its suspension of flights to Tel Aviv and Beirut until end-Friday, citing "the security situation" in the region.

The Lebanese Health Ministry says the death toll has risen to 37 after a series of explosions involving various communication devices in the country.

Health Minister Firas Abiad told a press conference in the capital Beirut that about 3,000 people were injured in the blasts. 

Hundreds of pagers used by the Hezbollah militia simultaneously exploded on Tuesday. On Wednesday, a second wave of communication devices — walkie-talkies — blew up.

Tuesday's pager blasts killed 12 people, including two children, and wounded about 2,300 others. Wednesday's explosion killed 25 and wounded more than 600, Abiad said.

Abiad explained that the walkie-talkie devices were significantly larger than pagers.

"That explains why we had more serious injuries on Wednesday," he said.

While Israel has not publicly admitted responsibility, the country is widely assumed to be behind the coordinated blasts. Hezbollah has vowed retaliation.

Since October 8, both parties have engaged in almost daily exchanges of rockets, artillery and drones across the border with Lebanon.

With Hezbollah  reeling after a series of deadly explosions targeting its communications systems, Guido Steinberg, Middle East analyst and international terrorism expert from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, told DW this had not fundamentally altered the status quo between Israel and Hezbollah.

However, he said that the blasts had dramatically hampered Hezbollah's ability to communicate, and added that Israel might step up actions against the group. Hezbollah has blamed Israel for the blasts, but the Israeli leadership has not yet commented on the attack.

"What happened in Lebanon is a major blow to the internal security of Hezbollah, but it is a blow that has not fundamentally changed the equation between Israel and Hezbollah," said Steinberg.

"A lot of people are wondering if a large-scale retaliation, which some people are expecting, is even possible given that these attacks have wiped out partly how the group communicates and there also have been assassinations recently of its leaders."

"It will be extremely interesting in the coming days, first, to watch whether Israel is stepping up military activity in southern Lebanon, and secondly, whether Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant will remain in place."

"We have all heard the news that Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu wants to get rid of him, and that might change the situation."

Hezbollah is considered a terrorist organization by the US, Germany and several Sunni Arab countries, while the EU lists its armed wing as a terrorist group. It also operates as a major political party within Lebanon.

A United Nations committee described in a document how Israel's actions in Gaza since October 7 have had a "catastrophic" impact on Palestinian children.

"The committee condemns in the strongest terms the severe violations of rights under the convention in the OPT (Occupied Palestinian Territories), including the tremendous loss of life as a result of the state party's military actions," the committee said, referring to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Israel ratified the convention in 1991. However, the Israeli delegation to the UN had said earlier this month that they do not believe it applies to Gaza or the West Bank.

Turkey accused Israel on Thursday of attempting to expand the war in Gaza to Lebanon.

"We see Israel mounting its attacks towards Lebanon step by step,"Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in a television interview. "We have come to a point where these operations carried out by Israel have become increasingly provocative, and in return, Iran, Hezbollah and elements close to them have no choice but respond.

"The escalation in the region is alarming," he added. "While we are currently thinking about Lebanon, there is always a risk of a war that may involve Jordan, Egypt, and the entire region."

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a vocal critic of the Israeli offensive in Gaza, called Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Wednesday to offer his condolences over the recent attacks.