The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) will convene an emergency meeting on Friday afternoon to address the recent series of pager explosions in Lebanon, which have left multiple casualties. The Lebanese government and Hezbollah have pointed fingers at Israel for the incidents.
Slovenia, the current UNSC president, confirmed on Wednesday that an emergency session was scheduled in response to a request from Algeria. The meeting will take place at 15:00 local time on Friday.
On Wednesday, a fresh wave of wireless communication device explosions across Lebanon claimed at least nine lives and injured over 300 people, the Lebanese Health Ministry reported. Over the past two days, these incidents have killed 21 people and injured more than 3,000.
Lebanon’s ambassador to the United Nations, Hadi Hachem, condemned the pager blasts as an aggression amounting to a war crime, warning that the attacks risk escalating ongoing regional tensions.
The explosions have unfolded as tensions rise along the Israel-Lebanon border. Israel and Hezbollah have been involved in cross-border hostilities since the start of Israel’s bombardment on Gaza following a Hamas-led attack on 7 October. The conflict has reportedly killed more than 41,000 people, many of whom were women and children.