2 children become most vulnerable victims of Lebanon pager blasts

By Rania Abu Shamala

ISTANBUL (AA) – Two young children have tragically lost their lives from the mass explosion of wireless pager devices in various areas in Lebanon.

Fatima Jaafar Abdullah, 10, was killed in an explosion near her family’s home in the Bekaa region in eastern Lebanon, according to an Anadolu reporter.

Her family members shared details about her tragic death in an interview with Anadolu.

“Fatima was studying and had intended to bring the pager device to her father when it unexpectedly exploded in her hands,” her cousin Muhammed Abbas Abdullah said during her funeral procession.

A video of the funeral showed her aunt crying as she paid farewell to the young victim.

“She was only 9; My God bless her soul,” said her aunt, who did not give her name. “She came back home and started doing her homework. She was very intelligent.”

“The last time I saw her, she told me that she feels that all the people love her,” she recalled. “I told her that’s right because you are smart and aware, so all the people love you.”

- Vulnerable victims

An 11-year-old boy, Mohammed Bilal King, also lost his life in a pager explosion in the Ghobeiry suburb of Beirut.

His funeral was set for Wednesday, where he will be laid to rest alongside three members of Hezbollah, including the son of a parliamentary representative.

Lebanese social media users extensively shared the names and images of Fatima and Mohammed, making them the most notable victims of the blasts that rocked the country on Tuesday.

At least 12 people were killed and around 2,800 others injured in a mass explosion of the devices in areas across Lebanon on Tuesday, according to Lebanese authorities.

Lebanese security sources said that Israel’s spy agency Mossad planted explosives inside the pagers used by Hezbollah members months before they exploded.

The wireless devices “were rigged with several grams of hard-to-detect explosives, placed in the battery in a way that ensures they can’t be detected by sensors or any explosive detection tools,” Mounir Shehada, the Lebanese government’s former coordinator with the UN peacekeeping mission UNIFIL, told Anadolu.

Lebanese Ambassador to the United Nations, Hadi Hachem, called the pager blasts an "aggression which rises to a war crime" and warned that it would exacerbate the conflict.

There was no comment from Israel on the pager blasts, but Hezbollah vowed to retaliate against Israel following the explosions.

The pager blasts came amid mounting border escalation between Israel and Hezbollah, which have been engaged in cross-border warfare since the start of Tel Aviv’s deadly war on the Gaza Strip, which has killed over 41,200 people, mostly women and children, following a Hamas attack Oct. 7 last year.