JERUSALEM (AP) — Hezbollah and the Lebanese government quickly blamed Israel for the nearly simultaneous firing of hundreds of pagers Officials said it was used by members of the militant group in an attack on Tuesday that killed at least nine people and injured nearly 3,000 others.
Many of those affected were members of the militant Hezbollah, but it was not immediately clear whether others were carrying pagers. Among those killed According to the Lebanese Health Minister, they were the son of a prominent Hezbollah politician and an 8-year-old girl.
The attack took place in the midst of rising tensions between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah, which has been in conflict since the Hamas attack on October 7, the war in GazaAmong those injured in the pager explosions was the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon.
Israel rarely takes responsibility for such attacks, and its military declined to comment on Tuesday. But the country has a long history of conducting complex long-distance operations, ranging from sophisticated cyberattacks to remote-controlled machine guns firing at politicians from passing cars, suicide drone attacks and detonating explosions at secret underground Iranian nuclear facilities.
Here is a look at previous operations attributed to Israel:
July 2024
Two key militant leaders in Beirut and Tehran were killed in deadly attacks within hours of each other, with Hamas claiming Israel was behind the assassination of its supreme leader. Ismail Haniyain the Iranian capital. Although Israel did not admit to playing a role In this attack, she confessed to a fatal attack a few hours earlier Fouad Shukura high-ranking Hezbollah commander in Beirut.
July 2024
Israel targeted Hamas’ secret military commander, Mohammed Deif, in a massive strike in the crowded southern Gaza Strip. The attack killed at least 90 people, including children, according to local health authorities. The Israeli military declared in August that Deif was killed in the attack, although Hamas had previously claimed that he survived.
April 2024
Two Iranian generals were killed According to Iran, it was an Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria. The deaths prompted Iran to launch an unprecedented attack on Israel, using around 300 missiles and drones, most of which were intercepted.
January 2024
An Israeli drone attack in Beirut killed Saleh Arouria senior Hamas official in exile while Israeli troops fight the militant group in the Gaza Strip.
December 2023
Seyed Razi Mousavia long-time adviser to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in Syria, was killed in a drone strike outside Damascus. Iran blamed Israel.
2021
An underground nuclear facility in central Iran was hit Explosions and a devastating cyber attack which led to power outages. Iran accused Israel of carrying out the attack and several others against Iranian nuclear facilities, Years later, numerous other explosive drones were deployed.
2020
In one of the most famous attacks against the Iranian nuclear program, a leading Iranian military nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadehwas killed by a remote-controlled machine gun while traveling in a car outside Tehran. Iran blamed Israel.
2019
An Israeli airstrike hit the house of Baha’a Abu el-Atta, a high-ranking Islamic Jihad commander in the Gaza Strip, and killed him and his wife.
2012
Ahmad JabariHead of Hamas’s armed wing, was killed in an airstrike on his car. His death sparked an eight-day war between Hamas and Israel.
2010
The Stuxnet computer virusdiscovered in 2010, disrupted and destroyed Iranian nuclear centrifuges. It was widely believed to be a joint US-Israeli invention.
2010
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a senior Hamas activist, was killed in a hotel room in Dubai in an operation attributed to the Mossad secret service but never confirmed by Israel. Many of the 26 suspected attackers were caught on video disguised as tourists.
2008
Imad Mughniyeh, Hezbollah’s military chief, was killed when a bomb planted in his car exploded in Damascus. Mughniyeh was accused of planning suicide bombings during the Lebanese civil war and of masterminding the 1985 hijacking of a TWA plane that killed a U.S. Navy diver. Hezbollah blamed Israel for his murder. His son, Jihad Mughniyeh, was killed in an Israeli strike in 2015.
2004
Hamas’ spiritual leader, Ahmed Yassin, was killed in an Israeli helicopter strike while being pushed in his wheelchair. Yassin, who had been paralyzed since a childhood accident, was one of the founders of Hamas in 1987. His successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, was killed in an Israeli airstrike less than a month later.
2002
Hamas’s second-highest military leader, Salah Shehadeh, was killed by a one-ton bomb dropped on a residential building in Gaza City.
1997
Mossad agents attempted to kill then-Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Amman, Jordan. Two agents entered Jordan using fake Canadian passports and poisoned Mashaal by holding a device near his ear. They were captured shortly afterward, and Jordan’s king threatened to annul a still-fresh peace agreement if Mashaal died. Israel eventually sent an antidote and the Israeli agents were sent back home. Mashaal remains a senior figure in Hamas.
1996
Yahya Ayyash, nicknamed the “Engineer” for his mastery in building bombs for Hamas, was killed in Gaza while answering a tampered telephone. His assassination sparked a series of deadly bus bombings in Israel.
1995
The founder of Islamic Jihad, Fathi Shikaki, was shot in the head in Malta. The assassination is widely believed to have been carried out by Israel.
1988
The military chief of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Khalil al-Wazir, was killed in Tunisia. He was better known as Abu Jihad and deputy to PLO leader Yasser Arafat. In 2012, military censors allowed an Israeli newspaper to publish details of the Israeli attack for the first time.
1973
Israeli commandos shot several PLO leaders in their homes in Beirut, in a Night raid led by Ehud Barakwho later became Israel’s top army commander and prime minister. The operation was part of a series of Israeli assassinations of Palestinian leaders carried out in retaliation for the killing of 11 Israeli coaches and athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
