Hezbollah's Nightmare Gets Worse: Second Set of Devices Explodes as Terror Group Mourns Earlier Casualties

A day after Israel reportedly sent a strong signal to Hezbollah by allegedly sabotaging pagers belonging to the Lebanon-based militant group, another round of explosions targeted Hezbollah's communications devices.

Thousands of walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members were destroyed on Wednesday across several locations in Lebanon, Axios reported, attributing the sophisticated attacks to Israel for the second consecutive day.

The New York Times reported that the blasts resulted in at least 14 deaths and 450 injuries.

The previous day’s pager explosions had left nearly 3,000 people injured and nine dead, according to Reuters.

One of the radio attacks on Wednesday even occurred during a funeral for a victim of the pager explosions.

The walkie-talkies targeted in the latest attack were reportedly purchased by Hezbollah around five months ago, which coincides with the timeline of the pagers, Reuters cited an unnamed security source as saying.

Security sources also indicated that Israel had planted explosives inside the pagers. Israel has not issued any official comment on the matter.

A Hezbollah official described the explosions as the “biggest security breach” in the group’s history.

Hezbollah has long used low-tech communication devices in an effort to evade Israeli surveillance of its members’ cell phones.

NBC reported that the radio blasts sparked fires “inside homes, cars, and shops.”

Additional explosions were also reported in other devices used by Hezbollah members, including solar energy systems and fingerprint scanners, according to the Times of Israel.

Israel's defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said the country is entering “a new period in this war.”

Gallant added that the "center of gravity" of Israel’s military operations is now “moving north,” as the nation’s “forces, resources, and energy” focus on Hezbollah, which has been shelling northern Israel for months, The New York Times noted.

According to a report from CNN, American officials were informed on Tuesday, prior to the pager attacks, that Israel was planning an unspecified operation in Lebanon.

Axios reported that the goal of these attacks is to pressure Hezbollah's leadership.

“The aim is to persuade Hezbollah that it’s in their best interest to distance themselves from Hamas and strike a separate deal to end hostilities with Israel, regardless of any ceasefire in Gaza,” a security source was quoted by Axios as saying.

The second wave of attacks was reportedly launched because Hezbollah was expected to discover the breach in its radio systems while investigating the earlier pager explosions, Axios reported.