The death toll from the latest explosions involving communications equipment in Lebanon rose to 25 on Thursday, with the number of injured at around 600, bringing the total to 37 deaths in both waves over the past two days, the Ministry of Public Health announced.
The head of the government department, Firas Abiad, explained in a press conference that the explosions that occurred on Wednesday were more intense and had a greater “impact on the victims”, causing 25 deaths and 608 injuries, of which 61 remain in the Intensive Care Unit.
Yesterday afternoon, suspected radio communication devices exploded in a chain in different parts of the country, after a first wave of simultaneous detonations on Tuesday affected thousands of pagers in the hands of members of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah.
Regarding the first wave, Abiad clarified that the number of injured was 2,323 and not about 2,800 as initially reported, since the authorities had counted some of the victims twice after they were transferred to second hospitals.
Of these, 824 were treated in emergency rooms and the rest required hospitalization in different centers around the country, where some 1,343 still remain with serious or moderate injuries, the minister added.
The head of the Public Health Service clarified that the number of deaths on Tuesday remained unchanged at twelve, so the sum of the two sets of explosions amounts to 37 dead and just over 2,900 injured.
“This is considered a war crime, because the martyrs died in civilian areas, not on war fronts,” he said during the hearing, noting that the Lebanese government will pay for the treatment of all the victims.
These unprecedented explosions have been attributed to Israel and Hezbollah has already warned that it will respond against the Jewish state, as it is the incident with the most victims since the beginning of border clashes between the parties almost a year ago.