Israel said to believe Hezbollah toll from exploding devices much higher than official numbers

Israel believes that Hezbollah’s toll from the exploding communications devices over the last two days in Lebanon is much higher than the official numbers released so far, a leading journalist reports.

Veteran Israeli investigative reporter and analyst Ronen Bergman, who works for the New York Times and Yedioth Ahronoth, writes that the toll is believed to be far greater than the 12 reported killed in the pager explosions yesterday and the 14 killed in the walkie-talkie explosions today.

“The estimation is that there are many dozens of dead, if not more,” he writes without naming his sources.

Bergman adds that Israel believes that the explosions caused “significant harm” to Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit, which has lost much of its leadership.

Israel has not commented on the explosions, which have been widely attributed to the Jewish state.