Israel-Hezbollah conflict – latest: Israel strikes Lebanon as Hezbollah says device blasts are ‘act of war’

The Japanese maker of the brand of walkie-talkies thought to have exploded in Lebanon has denied making the detonating devices – but has given its take on what could have been used.

Hand-held radios used by armed group Hezbollah detonated across Lebanon’s south on Wednesday, stoking tensions after similar explosions of pagers the day before.

Lebanon’s health ministry said 20 people were killed and more than 450 injured on the second attack in Beirut’s suburbs and the Bekaa Valley, while the death toll from Tuesday’s explosions rose to 12, including two children, with nearly 3,000 injured.

Read more here:

An Israeli man has been arrested on suspicion of involement in a plot to assassinate prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu or other senior officials after being recruited by Iran, Israel’s internal security service has said.

The suspect – who was arrested in August – is a 73-year-old businessman with links to Turkey who had been smuggled into Iran for two meetings to discuss assassinating either Mr Netanyahu, defence minister Yoav Gallant or the head of the Shin Bet intelligence agency, it was alleged in a joint statement from the Israeli police and Shin Bet.

The allegations date back to April, when when the Israeli man – named as Moti Maman – agreed to meet a wealthy businessman living in Iran for business purposes.

My colleague Andy Gregory reports:

Lebanese authorities are continuing to detonate any communication devices that appear to be suspicious amid fears of further explosions in the country.

In a post on X, the army said: “Specialised army units are detonating suspicious pagers and communication devices in different areas, so citizens are urged to stay away from explosion sites, report any suspicious device or object and not approach it.”

Irish premier Simon Harris has said that exploding device attacks in the Lebanon in the past 48 hours is "extraordinarily distressing, extraordinarily dangerous in terms of an escalation, and really, really, very concerning".

He said: "There are basic rules around engagement, even in conflict, and at the very core is the idea that you don't send explosive devices in among civilian populations and to watch explosions taking place in supermarkets.

"To watch the impact that it's had on civilian populations, on children, on innocent people going about their lives, is utterly despicable and extraordinarily dangerous at a time when the rest of the world is trying to de-escalate the conflict in the Middle East."

Mr Harris is to travel to New York next week to attend the UN General Assembly, which he said was an opportunity to try to bring about a ceasefire in the Middle East.

In relation to Irish troops, Mr Harris said they are continuing to monitor the situation "very carefully, very closely".

"The safety of our peacekeeping troops, who do incredible service on the ground, is always paramount in our minds. We don't just analyse and consider this at a national level. We also do with UN colleagues, and indeed with other European colleagues.

"I don't have any specific updates in relation to devices, other than to assure you that keeping our troops safe is an absolute priority for all of us in government."

The death toll from Wednesday’s blasts in Lebanon has risen to 25, bringing the total number of people killed in the two attacks to 37.

In the update issued on Thursday during a press conference, the country's health minister Firass Abiad also raised the number of people injured when the walkie-talkies were detonated to 608.

The previous day, hundreds of pagers exploded at once, killing 12 people including two children, and injuring more than 2,300.

The Vice-President of the European Commission has joined calls for an independent investigation into the attacks on Lebanon.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Josep Borrell said: “I firmly condemn today’s new attack via the explosion of a high number of electronic devices across Lebanon, which has caused several casualties and a high number of injuries. Once again, the indiscriminate method used is unacceptable due to the inevitable and heavy collateral damages among civilians, and the broader consequences for the entire population, including fear and terror, and the collapse of hospitals.

“Whoever is behind these attacks aims to spread terror in Lebanon. I join UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk’s assessment of the incident and the call for an independent investigation.

“The risk of military escalation, with devastating consequences for the entire region, requires an urgent mobilisation. The European Union will continue to do its utmost to support the voices of peace and reason.”

Restrictions on UK arms exports to Israel are "fair" and "proportionate", Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has said.

The UK suspended some arms export licences to Israel earlier this month over concerns the country is violating international humanitarian law in Gaza.

Mr Reynolds said the existing arms rules still allow Israel to "defend itself" against Lebanon.

He said the decision on ending about 30 of some 350 arms export licences to Israel "falls to me" and that he takes "personal responsibility" for explaining the impact.

He told LBC: "The findings that were passed to me from the Foreign Office, from the Foreign Secretary, that there was a risk that Israel was not complying with international humanitarian law in relation to detainees and access to aid, mean that I have to act.

"I set the scope of the limitations, the restrictions that we put in place. I did so to restrict those licences to the conflict in Gaza, making sure that Israel can still be in a position to defend itself against Hezbollah and Lebanon."

He added: "The decision we took was fair, was proportionate, was consistent with international law, and fundamentally what we need, what everyone needs in the Middle East, is a ceasefire in that conflict.

"That is in Israel's interest. I think it's in everyone's interest to make sure we get there, but we will always comply with international law as a Government, I think you would expect that of the UK Government.

"But I was cognisant of the risk in the north, from Lebanon, from Hezbollah, and made sure the restrictions we put in place reflected that situation."

Bulgaria will investigate a company linked to the sale of pagers to Lebanon's militant group Hezbollah that exploded this week in a coordinated attack, the state security agency said on Thursday.

Bulgaria's state security agency, DANS, said in a statement that it is working with the interior ministry to probe the role of a company registered in Bulgaria, without naming it.

Bulgarian media reports allege that a Sofia-based company called Norta Global Ltd had facilitated the sale of the pagers, which exploded across Lebanon on Tuesday, killing 11 people and wounding 4,000.

Reuters was not immediately able to confirm the link to Norta. Company officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A lawyer that registered the company at an apartment block in Sofia did not respond to Reuters questions.

Images of destroyed pagers analysed by Reuters showed a format consistent with pagers made by Taiwan Gold Apollo. Gold Apollo said on Wednesday that the pagers were made by Budapest-based BAC Consulting.

But Hungarian news site Telex reported that the sale was actually facilitated by Norta, citing sources.

The Bulgarian state security agency said that it did not detect any shipments of the suspected pagers on Bulgarian territory.

Germany has put a hold on new exports of weapons of war to Israel while it deals with legal challenges, according to a Reuters analysis of data and a source close to the Economy Ministry.

A source close to the ministry cited a senior government official as saying it had stopped work on approving export licences for arms to Israel due to legal and political pressure from legal cases arguing that such exports from Germany breached humanitarian law.

The Economy Ministry said on Thursday there was no ban on arms exports to Israel and there would not be one, with decisions made case-by-case after careful review, adding that international law, foreign and security policy were key factors in their assessments.

"There is no German arms export boycott against Israel," a spokesperson for government said on Wednesday, commenting on the report.

Last year, Germany approved arms exports to Israel worth 326.5 million euros ($363.5 million), including military equipment and war weapons, a 10-fold increase from 2022, according to data from the Economy Ministry, which approves export licences.

However approvals have dropped this year, with only 14.5 million euros' worth granted from January to Aug. 21, according to data provided by the Economy Ministry in response to a parliamentary question.

Of this, the weapons of war category accounted for only 32,449 euros.

In its defence of two cases, one before the International Court of Justice and one in Berlin brought by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, the government has said no weapons of war have been exported under any licence issued since the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel, apart from spares for long-term contracts, the source added.

No case challenging German arms exports to Israel has yet succeeded, including a case brought by Nicaragua at the ICJ.

The Japanese maker of the brand of walkie-talkies linked to explosions targeting the Hezbollah armed group that killed 20 people in Lebanon and injured hundreds of others said it could not have made the exploding devices.

"There’s no way a bomb could have been integrated into one of our devices during manufacturing. The process is highly automated and fast-paced, so there’s no time for such things," Yoshiki Enomoto a director at ICOM told Reuters outside the company's headquarters in Osaka, Japan on Thursday.

The detonation of hand-held radios used by Hezbollah on Wednesday in Beirut's suburbs and the Bekaa Valley, followed a series of electronic pager explosions on Tuesday that killed at least 12 people, including two children, and injured 3,000 others.

ICOM has said it halted production of the radio models identified in the attack a decade ago and that most of those still on sale were counterfeit.

"If it turns out to be counterfeit, then we'll have to investigate how someone created a bomb that looks like our product. If it's genuine, we'll have to trace its distribution to figure out how it ended up there," Enomoto said.