At a small grocery shop near the Sfeir Bridge, deep in the southern suburbs of Beirut – a Hezbollah stronghold – women were busy picking out produce.
Suddenly, screams filled the air. Bags dropped to the ground as the women ran in panic. A pager in the hands of a young man had exploded, sending him crashing to the ground, his motorbike in ruins.
The devices carried by Hezbollah members and others, exploded simultaneously in multiple locations on what has come to be known as “cursed Tuesday”.
Blood was everywhere – on the streets, in cafes and supermarkets, as ambulances rushed to various scenes, sirens blaring. Blood stained the streets of Shiyyah and Ghobeiry, in the bustling market of Burj al-Brajneh, and in the alleys of Bir al-Abed in Beirut, where Israel had assassinated Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in January.
Women fled, frantically calling their husbands and sons. Hezbollah quickly instructed residents through WhatsApp groups not to film the wounded or share their names.
A similar horror unfolded in many villages across southern Lebanon, especially in Nabatieh, where more than 500 people were injured. At Hammoud Hospital in Sidon, people lined up to donate blood, a scene mirrored outside the American University of Beirut Medical Center.
On Wednesday, Lebanese residents awoke in a state of shock from the magnitude of the dramatic attack, with all celebrations and events scheduled by public figures or embassies canceled, and the streets largely deserted.
Shipments of medical aid have begun arriving in Lebanon, including from Iraq and a medical delegation from Iran’s Red Crescent. Convoys have departed from the Jabal Mohsen area in Tripoli towards Beirut to donate blood for the residents of the southern suburbs, the South, and the Beqaa Valley. It has been reported that several of these convoys include doctors, nurses, and citizens with rare blood types.
So far, 10-year-old Fatima Jaafar is the youngest victim of the attack with two other children reported killed. Fatima was killed in her family’s home in the town of Sar’een in the Beqaa region of eastern Lebanon, with a phone placed beside her.
Among the 12 fatalities across Lebanon, only the identities of Fatima and Mohammad Mahdi Ammar, the son of Ali Ammar, an MP for Hezbollah’s ” Resistance” bloc, have been confirmed so far. The number injured remained at 2,750, Lebanon’s health ministry said on Wednesday. Around 200 people are estimated to be in a critical condition.
This incident comes after Israeli military warnings that tensions would shift from Gaza to Lebanon’s northern front.
“This is a major security operation paving the way for a dangerous escalation in southern Lebanon,” said Lebanese political analyst Samir Hassan. “It was meticulously planned and will not go unanswered by Hezbollah.”
Israel has not commented on the attack, but senior Lebanese security sources have blame the attack on Israel’s Mossad spy agency.
Former General Security Chief and intelligence expert General Abbas Ibrahim said he believes Israel is “eager but incapable of launching a full-scale war on Lebanon.”
“The US fleets have withdrawn from the region, and Israel received a message from the administration expressing its disapproval of the operation and warning of its potential danger to Israel.
“Israel is seeking to drag the United States into the war at any cost and is awaiting Hezbollah’s strong response to this massacre, which would compel the US to support it,” he said.
General Ibrahim added: “The exaggeration of the massacre’s scale is intended to provoke a larger reaction from Hezbollah, positioning itself as the victim, much like on 7 October, in order to draw American support and involve the US against Hezbollah.”
The security breach comes after the assassination of Hezbollah’s military operations chief Fuad Shukr in an Israeli missile strike in July. So far, all-out war has been avoided, as Israel has struck deep into Lebanon’s southern suburbs, which had remained a red line since the end of the 2006 war.
However, the situation has since changed. Hezbollah retaliated in mid-August, targeting an Israeli intelligence base near Tel Aviv. Tuesday’s events in Lebanon amount to a wide-spread attack targeting Hezbollah operatives.
A witness outside Hayat Hospital in the southern suburbs, who wished to remain anonymous, recounted that several of the wounded fighters were transported directly from the frontlines in southern Lebanon, where they had been stationed in valleys and forests along the Israeli border when their pagers exploded in their hands.
Lebanese MP Fadi Alameh, who also heads Sahel Hospital in the heart of Beirut’s southern suburbs, said: “What we witnessed yesterday defies imagination in terms of violence and injuries.
“We have yet to release official figures, but the numbers are overwhelming, and we will collaborate with the Ministry of Health to provide accurate data later.”
Hassan Qutb, director of the Lebanese Centre for Research and Consultation, said this would cripple Hezbollah’s combat capacity by disrupting many of its units.
“This operation is a prelude to a war. Israel has systematically eliminated senior Hezbollah leaders through successive assassinations and is now targeting nearly 3,000 operatives in key military positions, many of whom command combat groups.”
Mr Qutb described the attack as a “destructive breach, not just a security violation, one that upends deterrence dynamics.”
He emphasised that the rapidly evolving electronic warfare is playing an increasingly pivotal role in the conflict, raising serious questions about how Israel managed to breach Hezbollah’s communications, assassinate leaders and disable pagers.
“I believe this operation was a blend of advanced technology and an expansive spy network that prepared these devices for detonation.”
On 8 October, Hezbollah opened a front they called the “Support Front” for Gaza in southern Lebanon. Israel’s army has been accused of using white phosphorus in military operations along Lebanon’s southern border, according to Amnesty International.
Tens of thousands of people in northern Israel and southern Lebanon have been displaced by the fighting, and humanitarian access in Lebanon “continues to be constrained” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in January.
