By Laila Bassam and Emilie Madi
BEIRUT (Reuters) -Zainab Mustarah once spent her days running an events planning firm in Beirut. But for the last year, she has been in and out of surgery to save the remnants of her right hand and both eyes, maimed when Israel detonated booby-trapped pagers in Lebanon.
On September 17, 2024, thousands of pagers carried by members of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah exploded simultaneously, followed the next day by booby-trapped walkie-talkies.
Thirty-nine people were killed and more than 3,400 wounded, including children and other civilians who were near the devices when they blew up but were not members of the Iran-backed group.
Mustarah, now 27, was one of the wounded. She told Reuters she was working from home when the pager, which belonged to a relative, beeped as if receiving a message. It exploded without her touching it, leaving her conscious but with severe wounds to her face and hand.
‘SHOCKING’ ATTACK
Her last year has been a flurry of 14 operations, including in Iran, with seven cosmetic reconstruction surgeries left to go. She lost the fingers on her right hand and 90% of her sight.
“I can no longer continue with interior design because my vision is 10%. God willing, next year we will see which university majors will suit my wounds, so I can continue,” she said.
The exploding pagers and walkie-talkies were the opening salvo of a devastating war between Israel and Hezbollah that left the group badly weakened and swathes of Lebanon in ruins.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave the green light for the attacks, his spokesperson said two months later.
A Reuters investigation found that Israel had concealed a small but potent charge of plastic explosive and a detonator into thousands of pagers procured by the group.
They were carried by fighters, but also by members of Hezbollah’s social services branches and medical services.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said at the time that the explosions were “shocking, and their impact on civilians unacceptable.”
He said simultaneously targeting thousands of people without knowing precisely who was in possession of the targeted devices, or where they were, “violates international human rights law and, to the extent applicable, international humanitarian law.”
HOSPITAL STAFF WOUNDED
Mohammed Nasser al-Din, 34, was the director of the medical equipment and engineering department at Al-Rasoul Al-Aazam Hospital, a Hezbollah-affiliated facility, at the time of the pager blasts. He said he had a pager to be easily reached for any maintenance needs there.
At the hospital on September 17 last year, he spoke by phone with his wife to check in on their son’s first day back at school.
Moments later, his pager exploded.
The blast cost him his left eye and left fingers and lodged shrapnel in his skull. He lay in a coma for two weeks and is still undergoing surgeries to his face.
He woke to learn of the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a barrage of Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, a turning point for the group and its supporters.
But Nasser al-Din did not shed a tear – until his son saw the state he was in.
“The distress I felt was over how my son could accept that my condition was like this,” he said.
Elias Jrade, a Lebanese member of parliament and eye surgeon who conducted dozens of operations on those affected, said that some of the cases would have to receive lifelong treatment.
“There were children and women who would ask, what happened to us? And you can’t answer them,” he told Reuters.
(Reporting by Laila Bassam and Emilie Madi; Editing by Maya Gebeily and Timothy Heritage)
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