Scouts line streets for boy killed in Hezbollah pager explosions

Lebanese scouts were seen lining the streets of Beirut to grieve the death of a young boy who was one of 12 people killed after Israel set out thousands of explosives nestled inside pagers used by Hezbollah militants.

Mohammad Bilal King (pictured) was just 11 when he was killed by a pager explosion on Tuesday afternoon. The scout, along with three other party members, including the son of Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar, was buried in the Ghobeiry area of southern Beirut within hours, in line with Islamic burial customs. 

Photos showed a throng of people walking down Beirut’s streets mourning the boy, along with three of the other men who died. Fellow scouts walked alongside the casket, carrying signs with Mohammad’s face on it. Mohammad was tragically not the only child to die in the attacks, which are believed to have been carried out by Israel’s shadowy intelligence agency Mossad.

Eight-year-old Fatima Abdullah was named by local media as the second young person to be killed by yesterday’s pager explosions. The young girl was studying in her family’s kitchen in their home in the village of Saraain El Faouqa in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley when she heard a wireless pager bleep. Her friend nine-year-old Ali Abdullah told Andalou: ‘Fatima was sitting on the sofa and was studying when the pager rang. She picked it up to give it to her father who was outside, but it exploded in her hand.’

Her aunt, also called Fatima, added: ‘Fatima had just returned from her first day of school, brimming with enthusiasm. She was a top student and loved by everyone.’ Their deaths, along with ten others who perished on Tuesday, came just a day before Israel launched a second wireless attack, this time targeting Hezbollah’s walkie-talkies.

So far, at least 20 people have died and over 450 people were injured by by the walkie-talkies. Casualties are expected to rise overnight, as Lebanon’s health system is overwhelmed for the second time in two days. Beirut’s hospitals are reportedly still at full capacity following yesterday’s attacks, with medical aid being rapidly diverted to the already crippled country as it deals with the catastrophe.

The repetition of the clandestine attacks, which Israel has not officially taken responsibility for, will raise already spiking tensions in the region to fever pitch, with Israel moving additional troops to its northern border and Lebanon’s foreign minister warning that the blasts are an omen of a widening war.

For now, Hezbollah has been left deeply embarrassed by the security failure. Sky News reported tonight that ‘thousands and thousands’ of pagers are currently being destroyed by the proscribed terror group in the wake of the detonations. It has been alleged that Mossad, working in collaboration with Israel’s Defence Forces (IDF), was behind yesterday’s pager attacks, with Hezbollah officials already laying blame for the latest attacks with Israel.

Officials in Jerusalem have thus far declined to comment on yesterday’s pager blasts, but Axios reports that two sources ‘with knowledge of the operation’ confirmed Israel’s involvement. The unnamed sources allege that the walkie-talkies were booby-trapped in advance by Israeli intelligence and then delivered to Hezbollah as part of its emergency communications system, which the group had planned to use during a war with Israel. The compromised walkie-talkies were said to be part of Hezbollah’s emergency back-up communications system, in the event of their pagers not working.

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