Hezbollah and the Lebanese government were quick to blame Israel for the nearly simultaneous detonation of hundreds of pagers used by the group's members in an attack Tuesday that killed at least nine people and wounded nearly 3,000 others, according to officials.

Many of those hit were members of Hezbollah, but it wasn't immediately clear if others also carried the pagers. Among those killed were the son of a prominent Hezbollah politician and an 8-year-old girl, according to Lebanon's health minister.

In what appears to be a sophisticated, remote attack, pagers used by hundreds of members of Hezbollah exploded almost simultaneously in Lebanon and Syria Tuesday, killing at least nine people — including an 8-year-old girl — and wounding thousands more.

A U.S. official said Israel briefed the U.S. on the operation — in which small amounts of explosive secreted in the pagers were detonated — on Tuesday after it was concluded. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the information publicly.

Hundreds of paging devices used by members of Hezbollah exploded across Lebanon in an attack that killed at least nine people, including a child, and wounded 2,800 more.

The blasts dealt a heavy blow to the group, which blamed its arch-foe Israel for the attack.

The United States has said it was not aware in advance and had no involvement in mass explosions of pagers used by Lebanon's Hezbollah, as it urged restraint by Iran in response.

"I can tell you that the U.S. was not involved in it, the U.S. was not aware of this incident in advance and, at this point, we're gathering information," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

Fourteen people were wounded in Syria on Tuesday when pagers used by Hezbollah exploded, a Britain-based war monitor said, adding to a toll of at least eight dead and 2,750 wounded in Lebanon.

"Fourteen people whose nationalities are unknown have been wounded in Damascus and its countryside after pagers used by Hezbollah exploded," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. A source close to Hezbollah told AFP that some of its members had been wounded in pager blasts in neighboring Syria, without specifying how many.

Hezbollah vowed on Wednesday to punish Israel after hundreds of paging devices used by the militant group's members exploded in a deadly wave across Lebanon.

There was no immediate comment from Israel on the explosions that killed nine people, including the 10-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member, and wounded around 2,800 others.

Major airlines Lufthansa and Air France have announced suspensions of flights to Tel Aviv, Tehran and Beirut until Thursday as tensions in the region soared following pager explosions in Lebanon.

German group Lufthansa said it was suspending all flights to Tel Aviv and Iran's capital Tehran while French airline Air France suspended flights to the Israeli city and the Lebanese capital Beirut.

Hezbollah vowed on Wednesday to punish Israel for a deadly attack in which hundreds of paging devices used by the militant group's members exploded almost simultaneously across Lebanon.

There was no immediate comment from Israel on the wave of explosions that killed nine people, including the 10-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member, and wounded around 2,800 others.

A Taiwanese company and its Hungarian partner on Wednesday reportedly denied making pagers that exploded while being used by Hezbollah members in Lebanon.

The New York Times, citing American and other anonymous officials, reported that Israel had inserted explosive material into a shipment of pagers from Taiwan's Gold Apollo.

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah will make an address on Thursday, after hundreds of pagers used by his movement's members exploded across Lebanon.

Nasrallah will speak at 5:00 pm (1400 GMT) on Thursday in a speech addressing "the latest developments", Hezbollah said in a statement on Wednesday.