Wave of pager blasts in Lebanon and Syria kills at least 8, Hezbollah blames Israel

Hundreds of handheld pagers exploded near simultaneously across Lebanon and in parts of Syria on Tuesday, killing at least eight people, including members of the militant group Hezbollah and a girl, and wounding the Iranian ambassador, government and Hezbollah officials said.

Officials and Hezbollah pointed the finger at Israel in what appeared to be a sophisticated, remote attack that wounded more than 2,700 people at a time of rising tensions across the Lebanon border. The Israeli military declined to comment.

A Hezbollah official who spoke on condition of anonymity told The Associated Press that the new brand of handheld pagers used by the group first heated up, then exploded, killing at least two of its members and wounding others.

Hezbollah in a statement said Israel was "fully responsible" for the pager blasts.

"We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression," the group said in a statement, adding that Israel "will certainly receive its just punishment for this sinful aggression".

Lebanon’s health minister, Firas Abiad, said at least eight people were killed and 2,750 wounded — 200 of them critically.

Iranian state-run IRNA news agency said that the country’s ambassador, Mojtaba Amani, was superficially wounded by an exploding pager and was being treated at a hospital.

The incident was the first of its kind since Hezbollah began trading near-daily fire with Israel in support of ally Hamas after the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war.

An AFP photographer in Beirut's southern suburbs saw ambulances rushing injured Hezbollah members to hospitals in the area.

A photographer in central Beirut saw dozens of wounded people transported to another hospital.

An AFP correspondent in eastern Lebanon said dozens of people were wounded in similar incidents in the Bekaa Valley.

In Lebanon's south, an AFP correspondent reported dozens of ambulances rushing between the cities of Tyre and Sidon in both directions, with hospitals in both cities cordoned off.

The health ministry in a statement asked "all hospitals in... areas near the locations of the injured, to be on high alert and raise their level of preparedness", and "all health workers to urgently go to their workplaces" to assist.

The Lebanese Red Cross said it was on "high alert" in a statement shared on X, formerly Twitter.

Lebanon's official National News Agency reported "an unprecedented enemy security incident" with "hand-held pagers detonating" in several regions.

Hezbollah had asked its members to avoid using mobile phones after the Gaza war began to avoid Israeli breaches of the technology.

Hezbollah members communicate through their own telecommunications system.