Gaza live: Several dead including Hezbollah commander after Israeli strike on southern Beirut

Two Palestinians were killed and several others injured in an Israeli bombardment that hit a civilian car in al-Mawasi area, west of Rafah, Al Jazeera reported. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan extended his condolences to Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati during a phone call on Wednesday regarding the deadly pager blasts in Lebanon, which have been attributed to Israel, according to Turkey's Anadolu news agency.

Erdogan also warned Mikati about the dangers of Israel's attempts to expand the conflict in Gaza to the broader region and assured him that efforts to counter Israel's actions would continue, Anadolu reported.

According to the Palestinian health ministry, Israeli attacks in Gaza over the past 24 hours have resulted in at least 20 deaths and 54 injuries. 

This latest update brings the total death toll in Israel’s war on Gaza to at least 41,272, with thousands still missing.

Since 7 October of last year, Israeli attacks have also wounded at least 95,551 people.

The listed address for BAC Consulting in Budapest was on a primarily residential street in an outer suburb Reuters reported. The company's name was displayed on an A4 sheet on the glass door.

A person at the building, who requested anonymity speaking to Reuters, confirmed that BAC Consulting was registered at that address but did not have a physical presence there.

Several other companies were also registered at this location, but none responded to telephone calls or in-person enquiries from Reuters.

Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono, CEO of BAC Consulting, lists on her LinkedIn profile that she has served as an advisor for various organisations, including Unesco.

However, she did not reply to emails from Reuters. The company's website does not mention any involvement in manufacturing.

Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister Petra De Sutter condemned the “massive terror attack” in Lebanon and Syria, which resulted in thousands of injuries.

In a post on X, she described it as a “brutal escalation of violence”.

“Silence is not an option. An international investigation is necessary. The bloodshed must end,” she stated.

Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, speaking in St Petersburg, stated to the Russian media that “what happened [in Lebanon] yesterday requires an investigation and international attention to this issue.”

The Palestinian Ministry of Health condemned the death of Dr Ziad Muhammad al-Dalu, who was illegally imprisoned by Israeli forces while working at Gaza’s al-Shifa Medical Complex, according to a statement from the ministry.

“The ministry condemns this heinous crime against Palestinian medical staff and views the targeting of health workers while they perform their humanitarian duties as a blatant violation of international humanitarian law and all international conventions,” the statement said.

Dalu was detained by Israeli forces on 18 March, the health ministry reported.

“The continued violations against health workers represent a systematic assault on the Palestinian people and their institutions,” the ministry stated.

“We stress the need for the international community to hold the [Israeli] occupation accountable for its crimes against medical staff and civilians.”

Israel's war on Gaza has killed more than 1000 Palestinian medical staff, according to a report on Tuesday from the Palestinian health ministry.

The decision to execute the pager attack, attributed to Israel, was "imposed" following an intelligence breach involving two Hezbollah operatives who discovered the tampered devices, high-level regional intelligence sources told Al-Monitor on Wednesday.

The report states that an "intense debate" erupted within Israel's defense establishment after it became known that the plan had been compromised. 

Initially, Israel's strategy was to use the pagers only in the event of a full-scale war with Hezbollah to gain a strategic advantage. However, the plan was accelerated and executed on Tuesday.

Additionally, three US officials informed Axios' Barak Ravid that the attack was prompted by Israel's increasing concern that Hezbollah might have detected their operation. "It was a use it or lose it moment," one US official remarked.

Israeli forces shot and killed a 17-year-old Palestinian boy at dawn on Wednesday near Ni'lin, west of Ramallah.

The Palestinian health ministry identified the victim as Hassan Yousef Hassan al-Shaer who was killed by bullets fired by Israeli forces.

Wafa news agency reported that Shaer, who was also a poet, was from the town of Habla, south of Qalqilya. His body has been detained by the occupation forces.

Shaer was the eldest son in his family, which resides in Jericho. According to his family, he was on his way to visit friends in Ramallah.

Following Shaer’s death, the number of people killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since 7 October has risen to 706, including 160 children, 10 women, and nine elderly individuals.

An Iraqi military plane arrived at Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport this morning, bringing medical supplies to support hospitals grappling with the influx of injured from yesterday's pager explosions, Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) reported.

Lebanon’s Health Minister, Firas al-Abyad, received the supplies, according to the NNA.

In addition, a medical relief team from Iran’s Red Crescent has arrived in Lebanon to aid victims of the pager attack.

Iranian media, including Iran’s Tasnim Agency, reports that the delegation comprises the president of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, along with 12 doctors and 12 nurses and paramedics.

Gold Apollo, the Taiwanese company connected to the pagers involved in the deadly explosions in Lebanon, released another press release, revealing their partnership company is BAC Consulting KFT, based in Budapest, Hungary.

Gold Apollo has stated that it licenced its design to another firm and had "no involvement in the design or manufacturing" of the devices.

Hezbollah leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, is scheduled to deliver a speech at 5 pm tomorrow, the group announced in a statement.

The address follows yesterday’s pager explosions across Lebanon, which targeted Hezbollah members.

The attack, largely attributed to Israel, resulted in the deaths of 12 people, including a nine year old girl, and left approximately 3,000 injured.

Gold Apollo, the Taiwanese company connected to the pagers involved in the deadly explosions in Lebanon, has stated that it licenced its design to another firm and had "no involvement in the design or manufacturing" of the devices.

“We authorise BAC to use our brand trademark for product sales in specific regions, but BAC handles the design and manufacturing of the products,” the company said in a statement, naming the firm allegedly responsible for producing the pagers.

Hsu Ching-Kuang, founder and president of Gold Apollo, confirmed that BAC is based in Europe but refused to provide further details.

“We may not be a large company, but we are a responsible one,” Hsu said at the company's New Taipei City office. “This is very embarrassing.”

The Israeli army announced that four soldiers were killed, and several others were injured during clashes in Rafah, southern Gaza on Tuesday.

These casualties bring the total number of Israeli soldiers killed since Israel started its war on Gaza to 348.

According to Reuters, citing informed sources, Israel’s Mossad spy agency planted explosives in 5,000 pagers imported by Hezbollah before the devices were detonated on Tuesday.

The sources told Reuters the plot had been in the works for several months, with the pagers brought into Lebanon earlier this year.

A senior Lebanese source quoted by Reuters said Israel’s spy service had modified the devices “at the production level.”

“Mossad inserted a board inside the device containing explosive material that receives a code. It’s nearly impossible to detect with any device or scanner,” the source explained.

They also noted that 3,000 pagers exploded after receiving a coded message, triggering the explosives simultaneously.

Another security source told Reuters that up to three grams of explosives were hidden in each pager, going "undetected" by Hezbollah for months.