Israel's pager attacks amount to war crimes, terrorism: Nasrallah
People watch Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah delivering a televised address, as they sit at a cafe in Beirut, Lebanon, Sept.19, 2024. (Reuters Photo)


Israel violated red lines by detonating thousands of communications devices, in terrorist attacks that amount to war crimes, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said Thursday, as he criticized Tel Aviv for its outrageous attacks and vowed retaliation.

Calling the attacks "war crimes," Nasrallah said Israel not only targeted Hezbollah members but also civilians.

Just one day after pagers used by hundreds of members of Hezbollah exploded, more electronic devices detonated in Lebanon Wednesday in what appeared to be a second wave of deadly terrorist attacks that targeted an extraordinary number of people.

Nasrallah said Israel's back-to-back detonations of electronic devices across Lebanon amount to "a declaration of war."

"There is no doubt that we have been subjected to a major security and humanitarian blow, unprecedented in the history of our resistance and perhaps in the history of the conflict with the enemy."

"Over two days, in one minute every day, the enemy wanted to kill 5,000 people in two minutes without caring about anything," Nasrallah said.

"Our answer is, in the name of the martyrs and the wounded, that the Lebanon front will not stop until the aggression against Gaza stops, regardless of the sacrifices...," he said.

The blasts that hit Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday were "a major terrorist operation, an act of genocide, and a massacre, and amounts to a declaration of war," the leader of the Iranian-backed militia said.

As Nasrallah was speaking, Israeli warplanes broke through the sound barrier over the capital Beirut, with sounds like a bomb explosion causing panic.

According to the Lebanese Health Ministry, at least 37 people have been killed and some 3,000 injured across the country in the series of explosions that involved pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah.