Lebanese PM cancels UN trip amid escalation with Israel

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati has canceled his plans to attend the UN General Assembly session in New York next week due to a wave of deadly explosions, which was widely blamed on Israel.

Throughout Tuesday and Wednesday, thousands of electronic communication devices used by the members of the militant group Hezbollah simultaneously exploded across Lebanon, killing nearly 40 people and injuring some 3,000 others, including both militants and civilians.

While West Jerusalem neither confirmed nor denied its involvement, multiple media outlets reported that Israel’s spy agency Mossad was responsible for rigging hand-held pagers and walkie-talkies with explosives.

The explosions were followed by cross-border rocket attacks by Hezbollah and Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon.

In a statement released on Saturday, Mikati urged the international community to condemn “horrific Israeli massacres.”

“In light of the developments related to the Israeli aggression on Lebanon, I decided to cancel my trip,” he stated. “There is no priority at present that surpasses stopping the massacres committed by the Israeli enemy and the multiple types of wars it is waging.”

Israeli officials reiterated this week that the Jewish state would pursue any means to stop Hezbollah from firing rockets into northern Israel. The IDF and Hezbollah have been trading cross-border fire since October 2023, when a Hamas-led raid into Israel prompted the ongoing war in Gaza.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced on Wednesday a “new phase in the war” against Hezbollah, vowing to “continue to act to undermine the capabilities of and damage” the Lebanese-based armed group.

Several countries, including Russia and China, as well the UN, have condemned the use of electronic communication devices as booby traps as indiscriminate. Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, called for an urgent investigation into the matter.