JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
In Lebanon, funerals took place for a dozen people killed by exploding pagers that had targeted Hezbollah militants. But even as they buried their dead, more electronic devices blew up, claiming yet more lives and wounding hundreds of people. That is on top of almost 3,000 wounded the day before. NPR's Jane Arraf and Jawad Rizkallah were at the funeral in Beirut's southern suburbs.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Singing in non-English language).
JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: It was a modest setting - an empty lot in Beirut's mostly Shia southern suburbs. Men lined up to give their condolences to male relatives of the victims. Women gathered on the steps of a shrine across the street. Four photos look down from a wall.
There's a young boy, smiling and wearing what looks like a soccer jersey. Next to him is a nurse and then two Hezbollah fighters. Unlike the rest of the victims, they're a combination of civilians and fighters.
People who knew the boy's family said he was 11 years old. They said he and a young girl were killed when the pagers buzzed with a message. The pagers exploded after the children picked them up to take them to their fathers. The attack was unprecedented - a sophisticated cyber operation that also intercepted the supply chain to insert explosives in the hand-held messaging devices that Hezbollah believed were secure. The pagers exploded in homes, streets, cars, supermarkets.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Yesterday, when it happened, of course we were surprised. We were astonished. We were sad.
ARRAF: That's an 11th-grade mourner who didn't want to give his name because he was worried about security.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: The number is - it's bigger than the mind can process - 3,000 injuries, women, children. The Israelis don't have boundaries. Red lines - they don't have them. But when we, as civilians, try to condemn them, they turn us into terrorist supporters and terrorist funders.
ARRAF: A funeral speaker read the names of the dead.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Reading in non-English language).
ARRAF: And then, just as the bugle came in, a bang.
(SOUNDBITE OF EXPLOSION)
ARRAF: There was silence, and the names continued.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Reading in non-English language).
ARRAF: Word is going around that another blast has gone off from somebody's pager close by here, but the funeral is continuing. Pallbearers are laying down the coffins in front of photographs.
In fact, it was a walkie-talkie. Lebanon's government said Israel detonated the radios. The ministry of health said over a dozen people were killed and at least 450 wounded. After the coffins were carried out to be buried, the explosions continued.
There's motorcycles streaming down the street and ambulances.
(SOUNDBITE OF AMBULANCE SIREN WAILING)
ARRAF: They've blocked off one of the streets that an ambulance just went down. It's not clear what's happened. But clearly, there are wounded.
Lebanon is used to war, but not like this.
Jane Arraf, NPR News, Beirut. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
