Hundreds of pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon Tuesday, killing at least nine people and wounding some 2,800 in blasts the Iran-backed militant group blamed on Israel.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the wave of explosions, which came just hours after Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the war to include its fight against Hezbollah along its border with Lebanon.
The sons of Hezbollah lawmakers Ali Ammar and Hassan Fadlallah were among the dead.
The blasts "killed nine people, including a girl", Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said in a casualty update.
_____________________________
Read also:_____________________________
He added that some "2,800 people were injured, about 200 of them critically" with injuries mostly reported to the face, hands and stomach.
The 10-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member was killed in east Lebanon's Bekaa Valley when his pager exploded, the family and a source close to the group said.
Tehran's ambassador to Beirut was also wounded in a pager explosion but his injuries were not serious, Iranian state media reported.
In neighbouring Syria, 14 people were wounded "after pagers used by Hezbollah exploded", said a Britain-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Hezbollah blamed Israel for the blasts and warned it would be punished.
The United States, Israel's top arms provider and close ally, was "not involved" and "not aware of this incident in advance", said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
The afternoon blasts hit Hezbollah strongholds across Lebanon and dealt a heavy blow to the militant group, which already had concerns about the security of its communications after losing several key commanders to targeted air strikes in recent months.
Hezbollah had instructed its members to avoid mobile phones after the Gaza war began and to rely instead on the group's own telecommunications system to prevent Israeli breaches.
"Hundreds of Hezbollah members were injured by the simultaneous explosion of their pagers" in the group's strongholds in Beirut's southern suburbs, in south Lebanon and in the eastern Bekaa Valley, a Hezbollah source said.
Since October, the unabating exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Hamas ally Hezbollah in Lebanon have forced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border to flee their homes.
Not formally declared as a war by Israel, the exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Hezbollah have killed hundreds of mostly fighters in Lebanon, and dozens on the Israeli side.
On Monday, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant warned that failing a political solution, "military action" would be "the only way left to ensure the return of Israel's northern communities".
Before the wave of pager explosions, Israel said it killed three Hezbollah members in a strike on Lebanon.
'Israel sabotaged the pagers before delivery'
Israel apparently infiltrated a supply chain to cause the simultaneous explosion of hundreds of Hezbollah pagers, analysts say. Israel had corrupted the devices before delivery, allowing them to explode at a specific time, they said. "The pagers that exploded concern a shipment recently imported by Hezbollah of 1,000 devices, which appear to have been sabotaged at source. One of the factories Israel owns manufactured and shipped these explosive devices that exploded today, " analysts said.
People gather outside a hospital, as hundreds of members of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, including fighters and medics, were seriously wounded on Tuesday when the pagers they use to communicate exploded, according to a security source, in Beirut, Lebanon on Tuesday. REUTERS
Lebanese army soldiers stand guard as an ambulance rushes wounded people to a hospital in Beirut on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters on Tuesday. REUTERS
A Lebanese army soldier blocks an entrance of a Beirut southern suburb on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around the country amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters on Tuesday. REUTERS
Ambulances drive, as more than 1,000 people, including Hezbollah fighters and medics, were wounded on Tuesday when the pagers they use to communicate exploded across Lebanon, according to a security source, in Sidon, Lebanon on Tuesday. REUTERS