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This picture shows on September 18, 2024 the remains of an exploded walkie-talkie device with the Icom logo on a couch inside a house in Baalbek, a Hezbollah stronghold in eastern Lebanon. (Photo by AFP)
Turkey on Thursday accused Israel of seeking to expand the war in Gaza to Lebanon with the “alarming” wave of deadly explosions that swept through Hezbollah strongholds.
“The escalation in the region is alarming,” Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on state-run TRT television. “We see Israel mounting its attacks towards Lebanon step by step.”
The blasts have killed 32 people in two days, including two children, wounding more than 3,000 others, according to Lebanese health ministry figures.
Israel has not commented on the unprecedented operation in which Hezbollah operatives’ walkie-talkies and pagers exploded in supermarkets, at funerals and on streets.
But its defence minister Yoav Gallant, referring to Israel’s border with Lebanon, said Wednesday: “The centre of gravity is moving northward.”
Turkey blamed Israel for the blasts.
“We have come to a point where these operations carried out by Israel have become increasingly provocative, and in return, Iran, Hezbollah and elements close to them have no choice but respond,” Fidan said.
Hezbollah is an ally of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has been fighting a war in Gaza since its October 7 attack on Israel.
For nearly a year, the focus of Israel’s firepower has been on Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas.
But its troops have also been engaged in near-daily clashes with Hezbollah militants along its northern border, killing hundreds in Lebanon, most of them fighters, and dozens more in Israel.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday called Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati to offer his condolences over the wave of deadly blasts.
Erdogan is a vocal critic of Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
AFP
