Footage shows Hezbollah members' pagers exploding in apparent coordinated attack

These are the first pictures int showing people's pages exploding in Lebanon. Now, the government is urging pe to get rid of their pages after this bizarre attack. Sources say pages belonging to members of the Iran Hezbollah began exploding in are where the group operates.

Let's just watch this video agai This is video just in to CNN. It shows the moment where pages This is in one of the markets, as you can see. All right, Ben, you were listening in on all the new lines that are coming in.

Iran's ambassador to Lebanon injured in this attac according to Iranian media. We are hearing Lebanese health department really asking for all health workers to report back to work. We don't know what the target is We don't know who the target was We're getting more information on this front, Ben.

But as this is all coming to a h this stage, I wonder from your perspective and this is a big concern, what it means for the region from a security perspective, from a from an escalation point of view as well, Ben. Well, this certainly represents a serious escalation, because what we're talking about is, according to these Lebanese sources, hundreds of people being injured. And by all accounts, they seem to be all Hezbollah me And probably these are Hezbollah who are not sort of rank and fil These are probably local commanders, people who are in charge of units, lead from Hezbollah.

And the fact that Mustafa Amani, the Iranian ambassador to Beirut be among the injured sort of bri another level, because you are talking about an Iranian diplomat being injured in this. Don't forget that on the 1st of April of this year, there was what's widely believed to have b an Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic complex in Damascus, which that set off of strikes and counter strikes, the temperature even further. So this may be a similar sort of event where not only are there perhaps hundreds, perhaps more casualties among Hezbollah membe also even a senior Iranian diplo as well.

So certainly this sets the stage for a major escalation in between not only Hezbollah and Israel, but perhaps Iran as well. All right, Ben Wedeman, thank you so much. Joining us now, we've got Firas who is the director of outreach at the Middle East Institute in Washington.

As we are getting this breaking in with hundreds of people injur specifically Hezbollah members, after the pages exploded. For us, great to have you with u What is your initial response to this news? No doubt a major operation and a wonderfu I mean, maybe wonderful is the wrong wor but an exceptional breakthrough for Israeli intelligence to be able to penetrate Hezbollah telecommunication network and blow up hundreds, if not thousands of pi all at once.

So if could just straight to Jak that you mentioned Israeli intel being behind this. Is that is that what you're characterizing this as, that Israel was behind this? We don't have confirmation of th And, of course, we're getting information in in real time.

Why do you assume it's Israel? Absolutely. I mean, in the context of all that's happening, there is very little doubt in my and I think in the mind of most Middle East watchers that Israeli intelligence is beh Now, Israel does have a long tra of sometimes, quite often actually not claiming its operat to allow for some plausible deni and perhaps allowing the other side to de-escalate and not feel that they are compelled to retal But for all practical reasons, everybody here would probably su Israel as being behind this oper as we're getting more informatio And the other piece of news from Iranian media is that the I ambassador to Lebanon was also i How significant is this?

Well, I mean, this is very signi because we currently have the American envoy in Israel, in the region, very much for the purpose of de-escalating and preventing Israel from broadening this war, pulling Lebanon into it in a maj and also in a manner that can also bring in and drag sorry, Iran, Hezbollah's main pa which perhaps and has threatened before, openly not to stand by if Israel launches a major operation there. So, yes, this has the hallmarks of an Israeli operation. It has the propensity, the potentiality to broaden it in a way that the American administration has been pushing and what kind of thwart through diplomacy for quite some now, almost a year since October Juliet, in terms of Iranians ambassador to Lebanon being part of the injured as wel we've spoken about this for the last few minutes to sort of get a sense and under what this means in terms of esca We've just heard from for us, he says this has got the hallmar of an Israeli attack.

We just don't know yet. But how are you going to read in in terms of what it could mean regionally? Yes.

So, one, we don't have to be blind to the that, of course, this is Israel. I know it's not proving that there is no other there's no other entity that has desire and capability of somethi like this. And they they they hinted at it yesterday.

So as for so this is a the Iranians will see this as a direct attack on one of their senior government officials. So one could imagine how Iran is going to react. It would be no different than if their ambassador in thei was shot at, assassinated, kidnaped or whatever else now they may.

The irony here, of course, is and the question I ask out loud is what is what is the Iranian ambassador to to to Lebanon doing with a network of communic that is limited to Hezbollah and this is a we know why and this is a but they're going to have to fess up to that. I think the Iranians will claim that that he was on just a usual beeper network. But it's clear the ties between and Iran and leadership flowed t an ambassador or others who who had direct ties with as.

But this is the regional conflic we've been we've been worried ab Every time we get to a moment wh things could be triggered into a greater. I'm not minimizing what's already happening there. It's a regional conflict in some respects, but it's not a regional war.

This is the question, is this are we over the brink now or can all entities bring it back? All right, Paula, what more are we learning We know from a Lebanese security that hundreds have been injured. We know that this is a pager sys if you like, that is used by the militant group Hezbollah.

We don't know, though, the how many Hezbollah have been inj how many civilians have been inj That's simply not information we have at this point. So potentially in an hour's time we will get a lot more clarity on what has happened. We do know the public declaratio from the Ministry of Health at this point have pointed to the fact that it is a significant event.

The fact that they're calling he officials back to their hospital saying everybody has to go back so that we can cope with the sheer number of injured that are coming in to the hospit calling for for civilians to be to be given, giving blood to help with those injuries. So presumably they are significant injuries in some cases. And we're waiting for that numbe But we do have some video just i just showing some footage of health workers arriving at ho We just like to share that with This is what we have right now and you can see it for us.

I want you to give me a sense of you know, because we've got the the the immediate impact. So people that are injured, the health department trying to get people back at wor immediately, again, trying to confirm the number of We know that it was Hezbollah pages for now. Still waiting for that.

But there's a political element and it's a really big one at a time where you've got incredible tens in the region. You have a war that is raging between Hamas and Israel and, of course, that spilling over into Lebanon and the huge ramifications of an of this nature. Yeah, no doubt that today's attack is a watershed moment in this co that's been raging now for almost a year between Hezbollah and Israel.

But it's not disconnected. There's a broader context here. We all recall back in August, the assassination of Hezbollah's chief of staff in the heart of the Hezbollah controlled southern suburbs of B There has been a series of attac against Hezbollah by Israel that can be designed to spark a major war.

To be to be a pretext for broadening this war. And I think Hezbollah is very much being put in a difficult situation, a policy dilemma, if you may. If they respond and respond forcibly to such attacks, this being the latest and perhaps arguably the biggest then it risks giving Bibi Netanyahu or the Israeli prime m the pretext he is looking for to broaden a brought on this war with Lebanon and potentially pull in Iran.

But if they don't, they lose that hemorrhage, their deterrence, inviting Israel and Netanyahu to conduct further operations as we see today. There's a third option. And really, I mean, my sense is, particularly with U.

S. diplomacy active on this and the presidential envoy in th Hezbollah can very much make that decision still to unbu the Lebanon front from the Gaza that support front which Hezbollah launched in support of Hamas in October e has run its course and really has very much yielded very little in terms of returns for both Lebanon and Hezbollah and the Iranian ax So there is a third path here to de-escalate. I'm just not quite sure what level ticket.