At least 20 were killed and thousands were wounded in the attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday, when pagers and walkie-talkies of members of the extremist organization Hezbollah exploded simultaneously in Lebanon.
A group of Lebanese told about their mood after the explosions by phone on Thursday. also got in touch with the surgeon who treated the victims.
With the exception of the surgeon, the interviewees do not want to appear in this story with their full names for their own safety. We therefore exceptionally only use their first names.
“It feels like this just keeps going”
Walid is an 18-year-old marketing student.
– On Tuesday, I was coming by car from university to my grandmother. The driver sat in the car, my friend on the side of the co-driver and me in the back seat.
The trio heard an explosion in the car that sounded like a gunshot.
– There was a man lying in the street, and everyone thought he had been shot, Walid says.
Suddenly there was another explosion.
– A short distance away, a man on a motorcycle exploded. They came to pick up the first man in a jeep, Walid describes.
After Walid got to his grandmother, he went to the balcony of the apartment and heard more explosions and ambulance sirens.
– People were scared on Wednesday when the walkie-talkies started exploding. Everyone assumed on Tuesday that the attacks were over and that they only targeted pagers. Now it feels like this is just going to continue.
“We are afraid when other devices explode too”
Lebanese journalist Carla33, lives in Beirut and is currently a stay-at-home mom with her baby.
He describes the pager explosions as an unreal event.
– It was like a movie. No one could believe what happened. It was a shock to everyone.
– This is war, and of course this is terrorism.
According to Carla, the Lebanese are now really scared.
– We cannot know if they intend to attack our computers, phones and other devices. We are afraid when other devices will explode, he says.
According to him, there has been general concern in Lebanon about whether there will be an attempt to attack airports, for example.
Although the residents’ minds are weighed down by concerns about safety, life continues as normal.
– Regardless, the restaurants are full and people are celebrating, Carla says.
“We are afraid of escalation”
Tarek works in IT in Beirut.
– This was a massive attack against thousands of people. Hospitals were filled with injured people in no time. Almost the same destruction as the Beirut port explosion, says Tarek.
In August 2020, a devastating chemical explosion occurred in the port of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. At that time, more than 200 people died in the explosion, 6,000 were injured and hundreds of thousands lost their homes.
At least 20 people died and 2,800 were injured in the communications equipment explosions on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The attack focused on Hezbollah members and their families, but the explosions took place in public places.
According to Tarek, the situation has accelerated in Lebanon, and people live in constant vigilance and fear of attacks.
– No one can plan their life. We fear when things will escalate further. We are now at war, although it is mainly limited to the southern border, says Tarek.
According to Tarek, no one wants war, even though the Lebanese are divided.
– The division can be seen in the fact that some support Hezbollah’s activities and some of the people do not want to poke the bear (Israel).
– The decision to go to war is not in the hands of the Lebanese people, but in the hands of Hezbollah.
Surgeon: The device exploded shortly after the message tone
Plastic surgeon Naji Hayek works in Beirut at the LAU Medical Center-Rizk hospital and is currently treating victims of pager explosions.
Hayek says that after the explosions, about a hundred patients were brought to the hospital in less than half an hour. He got eight of them to take care of.
From the patients’ injuries and stories, you could quickly deduce what it was all about.
– All had very similar injuries. Most of the injuries were on the face, eyes and hands. There were also some injuries in the middle body.
– In practice, we are talking about broken fingers, pieces that pierced the eye, and in some cases also brain injuries.
According to Hayek, the patients had received a message on their pagers. After grabbing the device and looking at it more closely, the device had exploded. About four seconds had passed from the arrival of the message to the explosion.
Most of the patients were men aged between 20 and 40. They were Hezbollah fighters.
– The stakes that exploded now could not have been large. They were just the size that they wounded and blinded, says Hayek.