At least eight people were killed and 2,750 others including Hezbollah fighters, medics and Iran’s envoy to Beirut were wounded on Tuesday (September 17) when the pagers they use to communicate exploded across Lebanon, security sources and the Lebanese health minister Firass Abiad said.

Lebanon’s information minister Ziad Makary said the government condemned the detonation of the pagers as an “Israeli aggression.” Hezbollah also blamed Israel for the pager blasts and said it would receive “its fair punishment.”

The Israeli military declined to comment on Reuters enquiries about the detonations.

A Hezbollah official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the detonation of the pagers was the “biggest security breach” the group had been subjected to in nearly a year of conflict with Israel.

Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah have been engaged in cross-border warfare since the Gaza war erupted last October, in the worst such escalation in years.

Hezbollah confirmed in a statement the deaths of at least three people, including two of its fighters. The third person killed was a girl, it said, adding that an investigation was being conducted into the causes of the blasts.

(Reuters)