The U.S. and Israel coordinated regarding the detonation of wireless communication devices used by the Lebanese group Hezbollah, despite Washington’s rejections, a report said Thursday.
Explosions of thousands of pager and Icom wireless devices in several areas of Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday resulted in the deaths of 26 people and injuries to more than 3,250.
According to KAN, the official Israeli broadcasting channel, there was coordination between Israel and the U.S. concerning the explosions that rocked Lebanon.
The broadcaster reported that Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had two telephone conversations with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in the last 24 hours.
“The first call between Gallant and Austin took place on Tuesday, just minutes before the first wave of pager device explosions in Lebanon,” said KAN. “The second call occurred before the second wave of explosions.”
The U.S., however, has denied involvement in the explosions. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during a news conference in Cairo, asserted that Washington had no prior knowledge of the explosions and was not involved.
The White House also denied having any role in a spate of explosive attacks in Lebanon that targeted thousands of communication devices for two straight days.
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the U.S. was “not involved in yesterday’s incidents or today’s in any way.”
No party has claimed responsibility, but the attacks have again raised the specter of an all-out war between Hezbollah and Israel. Many of the devices, which included pagers and walkie-talkies, were used by members of Hezbollah, which operates as both a paramilitary and political group with vast social services in Lebanon.
It is “too soon to know what these incidents are going to mean to the already high tensions between Israel and Hezbollah up at that border,” said Kirby.
“All I can tell you is, as recently as a couple of days ago, Amos Hochstein, our envoy, was in the region having discussions to do everything we can from a diplomatic perspective to prevent those tensions from escalating into all-out conflict,” he added.
The explosions came amid an exchange of cross-border attacks between Hezbollah and Israel against the backdrop of a brutal Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip which has killed nearly 41,300 victims, mostly women and children, following a cross-border attack on Israel by the Palestinian group, Hamas, on Oct. 7 last year.
