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hello I'm M maseri welcome to the
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program we start this hour with the
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latest on the electronic pager
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explosions in Lebanon multiple Reports
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say that Israel's mad spy agency placed
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explosives in thousands of hisbah pages
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before they detonated across Lebanon on
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Tuesday so far Israel hasn't commented
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and given the simultaneous explosions
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hospitals in Lebanon have been
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overwhelmed with casualties the
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country's Health Ministry says at least
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11 were killed among them an 8-year-old
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girl thousands more were wounded with
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hundreds in a critical condition in
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hospital some were blinded others lost
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fingers or required amputations the
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context here is Hezbollah which is a
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prescribed terrorist organization by the
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UK and several other countries had been
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using the pages instead of mobile phones
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to communicate with each other that's
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due to the risk of phones being hacked a
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senior Lebanese Security Source told the
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Reuters News agent
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they were brought into the country
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months ago now separately Israeli and US
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sources say Israel detonated the pages
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earlier than planned fearing that
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Hezbollah had become aware of the plan
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now in another development police have
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visited the offices of a company in
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Taiwan as the pages seem to carry a
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Taiwanese brand the boss of the company
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gold Apollo has denied any involvement
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in the attacks he told reporters that
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his company had signed an agreement 3
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years ago go with a european-based
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company BAC which has an address in
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Budapest in Hungary here's a little of
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what he said earlier in a hastily
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arranged news conference in
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taipe Gold Apollo in the past three
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years has established a long-term
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trademark authorization with BAC
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company we have a regional agency
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cooporation and a cooperation agreement
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this product is not Apollo's product but
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a product that I authorize our trademark
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for them to
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Brand this product is not in our company
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the thing you found now it's not our
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product your company no longer produces
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the ar924 model it's not that we no
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longer produce it they're not our
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product from beginning to the end how
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can we produce products that are not
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ours are you 100% sure that the product
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is not made in Taiwan 100% sure it is
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not from your company
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no well the United States and the UN
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have called for restraint and calm after
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the pager explosions we'll have more
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reaction from the region shortly but
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first here's a report from our
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correspondent gra satchel and a warning
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it does contain distressing images from
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the very
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start it was an audacious unprecedented
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attack
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all across Lebanon thousands of pages
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exploding at the same time many were on
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the
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street hello some like here in people's
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homes some in
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[Music]
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supermarkets Emergency Services struggle
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to cope with the scale of the attack
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thousands of Hezbollah members suffering
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injuries in the same
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instant Israel hasn't commented but few
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have any doubts about its role so how
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was Israel able to Target Hezbollah in
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this way Hezbollah started using pages
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and old technology after it realized its
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mobile phones were being monitored the
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theory is Israel knew Hezbollah had
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ordered thousands of new pages and
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intercepted the
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shipment assuming that this was more
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than just making lithium batteries you
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know override and overheat but they had
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planted small amounts of explosives in
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each one of these pages then this was
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unquestionably a calculated
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attack on the border between Israel and
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Lebanon there have been constant
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exchanges of fire since the war in Gaza
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began yesterday's attack will pile more
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pressure into a region that is already
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volatile and
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precarious one of the scenarios that
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this is just a beginning to disrupt
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hezbollah's communication Network a
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beginning of a much larger uh military
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operation in Lebanon where when has
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cannot communicate with each other the
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Israelis will have a better chance at
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winning or expanding the operations in
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Lebanon funerals are already taking
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place in Lebanon and with them warnings
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we hold the Israeli enemy responsible
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for all of the victims for all of the
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martyrs for all of the wounded and we
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believe that the reprisal and is is
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coming in a statement the foreign office
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said we continue to monitor the
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situation in Lebanon closely and the UK
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is working with diplomatic and
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humanitarian Partners in the region the
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civilian casualties following these
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explosions are deeply distressing we
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urge calm heads and deescalation at this
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critical
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time there is now considerable
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International concern at what may come
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next Graeme Satchel BBC
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News let's speak now to Nada atah she's
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a Beirut correspondent for the Middle
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East base the national she's also
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visited some of the hospitals where some
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of the victims of the blast
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were taken NADA thanks for your time uh
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so I want to ask you straight away what
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you've actually witnessed at that
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hospital and some of the reaction from
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Lebanese
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civilians oh yeah thank you for having
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me so I visited some hospitals yesterday
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and it was a complete chaos in in in the
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country in in the the capital and and in
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hospitals there were like the Sirens of
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of ambulances constant Sirens um wailing
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in in Beirut um hospitals were uh
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overwhelmed um I visited three hospitals
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they would not let me in for security
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reasons because the the Army had uh
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closed the area and they would not let
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anyone uh entered not even the family so
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people were begging to be let in because
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they had like family members worried for
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their loved ones but they would not let
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anyone in um so people would gathered
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outside um in it was complete chaos uh I
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interviewed some of the family members
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uh they told me they've seen scene of
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harrowing scenes of injuries of people
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with their eyes uh people with Bloods
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everywhere on their face um uh people
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with um their their uh blood on their on
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their hands and and very severe injuries
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so and until very very late at night uh
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yesterday we were hearing um the sirens
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and the constant sound of the Sirens of
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the ambulances transferring patients
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during very late at night and NADA what
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you're describing there it's it's a
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large scale attack here something that's
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really affected civilians uh in terms of
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those linked to hisbah what do we know
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in terms of who and and how many uh
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people have been
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injured so so far I think there's
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currently uh a press conference from the
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Ministry of Health but so far the
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numbers of nearly 3,000 uh injured uh
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200 severely and and nine killed among
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them there's eight uh Fighters that
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Hezbollah have announced and one child a
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little girl who's eight years old but
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there might be more because uh when I
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went to the hospitals yesterday many
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cases were very critical uh so it is it
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is possible that might be more more more
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death the death to might increase and
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Iran's ambassador to Lebanon is said to
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have been injured by the attack as well
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uh what have we been hearing in terms of
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response from either Hezbollah or even
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Iran yes so yeah he's been his uh he
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he's been injured but he said that his
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situation it was a light injury uh
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regarding the retaliation the response
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so heah had said they will um be a
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response there would be a severe and a
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fair response to that attack uh we don't
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know what it would be of course um
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hassah Chief said he will be speaking
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tonight uh about the most recent
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development so we're expecting some more
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more information tonight uh it's not the
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first time that tensions are pecking
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between uh Hezbollah and Israel and lots
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of time we've been at in Lebanon at the
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edge of a fulls scale War so we don't
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know if that's going to be the the
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escalation that's going to trigger um a
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full-fledged war or it's going to be
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another loop of violence that will be
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followed by um a c more situation so
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we're caught up in this Loops of
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violence in Lebanon and it it's really
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uncertain what's going to happen next
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all right NADA thanks for your time that
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was NADA atulah a Beirut correspondent
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for the Middle East based the national
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and as n mentioned there the hisbah
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leader Hassan nasah is to make an
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address tomorrow that's according to a
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statement from the Iran backed group and
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we do have a live page online right now
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with the very latest developments
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updates analysis as well from our
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correspondents on what we know about
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these pager explosions you'll find that
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on the BBC News website and app
