Lebanon’s health minister: two children among 12 dead from pager detonations

About 3,000 people, including civilians, are reported to have been injured by the wave of blasts that struck Lebanon on Tuesday.

Approximately 300 people remain critically wounded, the minister stated. He added hospital staff performed 460 operations, mostly on eyes and faces, with many also treating injuries to hands.

While there has been no official claim of responsibility, the attack, which appears to have been chiefly aimed at Hezbollah operatives, has been widely attributed to Israel.

Lebanon’s minister of information has said the country is preparing to take a complaint to the UN security council over the mass detonation of pagers.

Lebanon’s state national news agency reports that Ziad Makary described the explosions as “a blatant attack on the Lebanese sovereignty, that targeted civilians, not only Hezbollah members”.

“What we fear is not Hezbollah, but Israel’s criminality, whether in Gaza or Lebanon. Lebanon is preparing a complaint to submit to the UN security council, and the ambassadors of certain states concerned with this never-ending conflict between Lebanon and the Israeli enemy will be summoned.”

“The enemy does not care about anybody, not even about the constant and public US pressures. US diplomacy must intensify its pressures on Israel before it does on Hezbollah and Lebanon,” the minister added.