Hezbollah fighters carry the coffins of a person killed after hundreds of paging devices exploded in a deadly wave across Lebanon the previous day, during their funeral procession in Beirut’s southern suburbs on September 18, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Japanese firm Icom said Thursday (September 19, 2024) that it had stopped producing the model of radios reportedly used in recent blasts in Lebanon around 10 years ago.

“The IC-V82 is a handheld radio that was produced and exported, including to the Middle East, from 2004 to October 2014. It was discontinued about 10 years ago, and since then, it has not been shipped from our company,” Icom said in a statement.

“The production of the batteries needed to operate the main unit has also been discontinued, and a hologram seal to distinguish counterfeit products was not attached, so it is not possible to confirm whether the product shipped from our company,” it said.

It added that products for overseas markets are sold exclusively through its authorized distributors, and that its export programme is based on Japanese security trade control regulations.

“All of our radios are manufactured at our production subsidiary, Wakayama Icom Inc., in Wakayama Prefecture, under a strict management system… so no parts other than those specified by our company are used in a product. In addition, all of our radios are manufactured at the same factory, and we do not manufacture them overseas,” the statement said.

In the second wave of device explosions in as many days, 20 people died and more than 450 were wounded on Wednesday (September 19, 2024) in Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon, officials said.

A source close to Hezbollah said walkie-talkies used by its members blew up in its Beirut stronghold, with state media reporting similar blasts in south and east Lebanon.

They came a day after the simultaneous explosion of hundreds of paging devices used by Hezbollah killed 12 people, including two children, and wounded up to 2,800 others across Lebanon, in an unprecedented attack blamed on Israel.

There was no comment from Israel. The White House warned all sides against “an escalation of any kind”.

People gather as smoke rises from a mobile shop in Sidon, Lebanon, on September 18, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

A source close to Lebanon’s Hezbollah group said walkie-talkies used by group members exploded in its Beirut stronghold on Wednesday (September 18, 2024), with State media reporting similar blasts of pagers and “devices” in east and south Lebanon.

Lebanon pagers explosion: Follow highlights from September 17, 2024

“A number of walkie talkies exploded in Beirut’s southern suburbs,” the source said, with Hezbollah-affiliated rescuers confirming devices had exploded inside two cars in the area.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said pagers and “devices” had also exploded in Hezbollah strongholds in the east and south, with AFP correspondents also reporting hearing explosions..

Meanwhile, Associated Press journalists said that multiple explosions occurred at the site of a funeral for three Hezbollah members and a child killed by exploding pagers the day before.

An ambulance arrives at a hospital as more than 1,000 people, including Hezbollah fighters and medics, were wounded on September 17, 2024, when the pagers they use to communicate exploded across Lebanon, according to a security source, in Beirut, Lebanon.
| Photo Credit:
Reuters

Dozens of people, including Iran’s ambassador, were wounded in Beirut’s suburbs and other parts of Lebanon after their handheld pagers exploded today (September 17, 2024), according to media reports and security officials. It wasn’t immediately clear if people were killed.

A senior military intelligence official and an official with a Lebanese group with knowledge of the situation, both of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said that pagers carried by Hezbollah members were detonated. The second official said it was believed to be an Israeli attack.

Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency, close to the country’s powerful Revolutionary Guard, said on its Telegram channel that Mojtaba Amani, Iran’s ambassador in Lebanon, has a superficial injury and is under observation at a hospital. 

Meanwhile, another semi-official Mehr news agency, also on its Telegram channel reported that Amani was wounded by a pager explosion.

Photos and videos from Beirut’s southern suburbs circulating on social media and in local media showed people lying on the pavement with wounds on their hands or near their pants pockets.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah previously warned the group’s members not to carry cellphones, saying that they could be used by Israel to track their movements and to carry out targeted strikes.

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