Israel’s defense minister has declared the start of a “new phase” of the war as Israel turns its focus toward the northern front against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Speaking to Israeli troops on Wednesday, Yoav Gallant made no mention of the mysterious explosions of electronic devices in Lebanon in recent days. But he praised the work of Israel’s army and security agencies, saying “the results are very impressive.”

Nine people were killed and over 300 wounded Wednesday when walkie-talkies exploded across Lebanon, the government said, a day after pagers used by Hezbollah blew up, killing 12 and wounding up to 2,800.

The Iran-backed group blamed Israel for the first wave of blasts on Tuesday, vowing revenge and stoking fears of all-out war in the region.

Israeli forces in the northern region are continuing their offensive and defensive exercises, the Israeli army said on Wednesday.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Wednesday that Western backers of Israel should feel "shame" after paging devices belonging to Lebanon's Hezbollah exploded, in a deadly attack the Tehran-aligned group blamed on Israel.

"Western countries and the Americans... fully support the crimes, killings and indiscriminate assassinations of the Zionist regime," Pezeshkian said in a statement, referring to Israel, adding that the explosions should bring them "shame."

Israel decided to blow up the pager devices carried by Hezbollah members in Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday out of concern its secret operation might have been discovered by the group, three U.S. officials told U.S. news portal Axios.

The attack took place as tensions rise between Israel and Hezbollah, which U.S. officials are highly concerned will devolve into all out war.

Free Patriotic Movement leader Jebran Bassil described the pager explosions that rocked Lebanon as “an attack on entire Lebanon, not on a party or a sect in it.”

Israel’s military said they have intercepted two suspicious drones that approached Israel from Lebanon and Iraq on Wednesday morning, the day after pagers used by the militant group Hezbollah exploded in Lebanon and Syria, killing at least nine people, including an 8-year-old girl, and wounding nearly 3,000. Hezbollah and the Lebanese government blamed Israel for what appeared to be a sophisticated remote attack.

The Israeli military said they intercepted a drone launched from Lebanon over the Mediterranean Sea near the coast of northern Israel. Another drone launched from Iraq was intercepted by Israeli air force fighter jets. There were no injuries or damage reported.

Lebanese medics treated Tuesday a stream of wounded people at a hospital car park as others in Hezbollah's southern Beirut stronghold rushed to give blood after group members' pagers had exploded.

Simultaneous blasts of the devices hit locations in several Hezbollah bastions across Lebanon, with the health ministry reporting 12 killed and some 2,800 others wounded.

Caretaker Health Minister Firass Abiad said Wednesday that 12 people were killed after paging devices used by Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon a day earlier, adding that some wounded were treated in Syria.

"After checking with all the hospitals," the toll was revised to 12 dead, Abiad told a news conference, putting the number of wounded between 2,750 and 2,800.

The pager was the first compact mobile communication tool to appear on the mass market and although smartphones have largely pushed it out, some people still use the reliable technology today.

Pagers were in the spotlight on Tuesday after hundreds of the devices used by Hezbollah members in Lebanon exploded simultaneously across the country in a first-of-its-kind attack that the group blamed on Israel.