The United Nations says it is extremely concerned by the simultaneous explosions of hundreds of pagers in Lebanon and Syria.
International media reports say at least nine were killed, including a 10-year-old girl, with the injury toll put at about 2750 wounded (mostly injuries to the face and hands), including Iran’s ambassador in Beirut, Mojtaba Amani.
Hezbollah fighters in Syria were also reportedly injured.
In a statement, UN Special Co-ordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert deplored the attack and said civilians were not a target and must be protected at all times.
“The developments mark an extremely concerning escalation in what is an already unacceptably volatile context,” she says.
Hennis-Plasschaert is calling on all sides to refrain from retaliation, or even talk of it which could spark a wider conflict.
A Hezbollah official reportedly said the detonation of the pagers was the biggest security breach for the group in nearly a year of conflict with Israel.
The blasts appeared to exploit the low-tech pagers that Hezbollah had adopted in order to prevent the targeted assassinations of its members.
Lebanon’s foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, told media outlets that the country was bracing for a major retaliation by Hezbollah.
The son of the Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar reportedly also died in the explosions as did two sons of other prominent Hezbollah figures.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
The attack took place just hours after Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the war sparked by the October 7 attacks by Hamas to include Hezbollah as well.
Lebanon’s health ministry put hospitals across the country on “maximum alert” and instructed citizens to distance themselves from wireless communication devices.
A US State Department spokesman denied Washington was involved and did not know who was responsible.
Israel’s domestic security agency reportedly claimed to have foiled a plot by Hezbollah to assassinate a former senior Israeli defence official.
The Shin Bet agency said it seized an explosive device attached to a remote detonation system, using a mobile phone and a camera to be operated from Lebanon.
