And a senior official in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the region was on the brink of war.
Mohsen Rezaei, who called Israel’s airstrikes “another big crime”, said that “after Lebanon, they are likely to extend their crimes towards Iraq, Syria or an even bigger mistake towards Iran”. A report in Tasnim, a semi-official news agency believed to be close to the IRGC.
The United Nations warned on Friday that the situation in the Middle East could worsen.
“If things continue as they are, we could see a conflict that could dwarf even the disasters and suffering seen so far,” UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo told an emergency Security Council meeting, adding, “It is not too late to avoid it. Such folly. There is still room for diplomacy and it must be used without delay.” .
Although Israel signaled that its focus had shifted north, its assault on Gaza continued.
Israel said its air force carried out a precision strike on terrorists operating inside a Hamas command and control center at a former school in Gaza City.
Gaza’s health ministry said 22 people were killed and 30 injured, mostly women and children, in the strike at a site that local officials said was being used as a shelter by thousands of displaced people.
Device explosions leave a global trail
As Lebanon grapples with the aftermath of the device attacks, officials from Asia to Europe are examining how it ended up in Hezbollah’s hands.
The Hungarian government said on Saturday it had conducted multiple interviews with the CEO of Budapest-based BAC Consulting, which was linked to the country’s intelligence services pagers.
Taiwan-based Gold Apollo, whose logo was on its pagers, said earlier this week that the devices were manufactured by a Hungarian company. The company’s chief executive, Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono, confirmed to NBC News earlier this week that her company had worked with Gold Apollo, but said “I’m the intermediary.”
Hungarian intelligence agencies have interviewed Barsony-Arcidiacono several times, the government’s international press office said in a statement, Reuters reported.
In Japan, icom, the brand whose label was on the exploded walkie-talkies, pointed to the devices’ lack of holographic stickers and said it did not believe they were genuine products.
In a statement Friday, the company said it believed it was “highly unlikely that the radio that exploded was manufactured by our company.”
“We regret that radios/communication devices, whether manufactured by our company or not, which are supposed to be a tool to ensure safety and peace of mind, have been used in this way,” the company added.
