00:00A day after pages used by Hezbollah members detonated across Lebanon, we are getting reports
00:06today that walkie-talkies used by the group have been exploding as well. Now, reports
00:12of these explosions today have been heard in Beirut as well as in the south of Lebanon.
00:17The country, of course, still reeling from the attacks yesterday, which have been widely
00:21blamed on Israel. Twelve people have been killed and hospitals struggling to cope with
00:27the nearly 3,000 injured. Well, let's cross straight to Beirut on the programme. Rawad
00:33Taha is our correspondent. He's with me now. Rawad, what is happening in Lebanon today?
00:41Shortly, within the span of the last 30 minutes, we saw another round of explosions, much bigger
00:50than the explosions that Lebanon witnessed yesterday, but less in total number. This
00:57is preliminary information, but what we know for a fact is that walkie-talkie devices used
01:04by Hezbollah have also exploded simultaneously, roughly around, within the span of the last
01:1130 minutes across various areas in Lebanon, mostly in Beirut's southern suburbs and in
01:18the south of Lebanon. According to an official security source, the communication devices
01:27which are exploding today or which exploded shortly a while ago are different than the
01:34pagers which exploded yesterday. However, also preliminary information indicates that
01:41the batch that has exploded today was received within the span of the last five months as
01:49well and it is a new batch of walkie-talkie devices. This is all preliminary information
01:55of what's going on right now. And Rawad, I mean, this is really quite a
01:59development today and it comes as Lebanon, of course, is still reeling from what happened
02:06yesterday. And as I say, nearly 3,000 people injured, hospitals really struggling to cope
02:12already. Indeed, yes. There is a clear issue of hospitals
02:20being at full capacity. Despite the crisis and despite the chaos yesterday, hospitals
02:25have managed to treat most of the injured until early morning hours today. A lot of
02:31the injuries were sustained in the eyes, directly in the eyes, in the arms and around
02:38the wrist. So basically, wherever the pager device was, was the main injury. The explosions
02:44were very small. However, they were very damaging to the area that was first impacted. So a
02:48lot of people lost their hands. A lot of people had issues in their abdomen area and on the
02:55wrist. And a lot of people who were holding the pager devices when they exploded have
02:59serious issues in their eyes. We're talking about 3,000 injuries as a rough estimate and
03:07over 11 killed in yesterday's wave of explosions. Nothing gets clear on today's wave of explosions
03:13of walkie talkies. And Rawad, I suppose this development today,
03:19these reports that walkie talkies are exploding as well, will only redouble those questions
03:26in Lebanon about when and how these devices that entered the country within the last few
03:33months were tampered with. Exactly. The main question that falls today
03:38is when did this tampering happen? Did it happen in the source of origin during manufacturing
03:44somewhere outside Lebanon? Did it happen during assembly? Did it happen before delivery? So
03:51yes, it is very clear that there is a security breach, very evident. That was evident in the
03:56past with the fact that Israel was able to assassinate in precision airstrikes multiple
04:01senior commanders of Hezbollah. Back then, Hezbollah shifted from using cell phones and
04:08devices that are able to connect to the internet and to GPS to devices which cannot, such as
04:13walkie talkies and the pagers. And the incidents that we saw yesterday and now the wave of walkie
04:18talkies that we're discussing today shows the extent of this security breach of Hezbollah's
04:25mode of operation.
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