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—A second deadly wave of unprecedented explosions in the strongholds of Lebanon’s Hezbollah left it in disarray on Thursday, hours before a major speech by its beleaguered leader Hassan Nasrallah.
The latest batch of device explosions killed 20 people and wounded more than 450 others on Wednesday, officials said, stoking fears of a full-blown war with Israel.
The blasts came a day after the simultaneous detonation of pagers used by Hezbollah killed 12 people, including two children, and wounded up to 2,800 others across Lebanon, in an unprecedented attack blamed on Israel.
Walkie-talkies used by its members exploded in the latest blasts at Hezbollah’s Beirut stronghold, a source close to the group said, with state media reporting similar detonations in south and east Lebanon.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) TV footage showed people running for cover when an explosion went off during a funeral for Hezbollah militants in south Beirut in the afternoon.
“The wave of enemy explosions that targeted walkie-talkies … killed 20 people and wounded more than 450,” Lebanon’s health ministry said in a statement.
There was no comment from Israel, which only hours before Tuesday’s explosions had announced it was broadening the aims of its war in Gaza to include its fight against Hamas’ ally Hezbollah.
“The center of gravity is moving northward,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said during a visit to an air base on Wednesday. “We are at the start of a new phase in the war.”
Amos Harel of the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper said the pager and walkie-talkie blasts had put “Israel and Hezbollah on the brink of all-out war.”
With tensions in the Middle East spiraling, senior diplomats from the United States, Britain, Germany, France and Italy will meet on Thursday in Paris, sources said, ahead of a UN Security Council meeting planned for Friday.
