The Lebanese government has put out an official warning to citizens to avoid remote wireless devices and inform the authorities upon seeing one.
The Lebanese government has issued a warning to Lebanese citizens, which shows a picture of walkie talkies and says "Don't touch! Immediately update Lebanese security forces."
Hezbollah itself had previously released safety instructions calling on all its members to do the following: "All cellular and electronic devices recently imported should be checked to ensure they are not booby-trapped. The batteries of every wireless technological device should be temporarily unplugged."
ICOM, the Japanese company which produced the model of walkie talkies used by Hezbollah and which were detonated en masse yesterday, told Reuters that the model of walkie talkie used had been discontinued a decade ago.
The company said that the manufacturing process was too fast to allow someone to plant explosives inside, and that it is likelier that Hezbollah ended up purchasing counterfeit models, which have been sold around the world for a while.
The Lebanese al-Akhbar reports 20 dead from the walkie talkie explosions, as well as 470 wounded, including 150 seriously. Adding the 300 reported seriously injured from the pager explosions, this means some 450 Hezbollah terrorists are seriously wounded.
A doctor from the American University in Lebanon said that the types of injuries many have suffered to their hands and eyes means they need to be treated in multiple departments of a hospital at once, doubling and even tripling the work burden.
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