Lebanon's Hezbollah promised to retaliate after blaming Israel for detonating pagers on Tuesday that killed at least eight people and wounded 2,750 others, including many of the militant group's fighters and Iran's envoy to Beirut.
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 © Mena Today
Lebanon's Hezbollah promised to retaliate after blaming Israel for detonating pagers on Tuesday that killed at least eight people and wounded 2,750 others, including many of the militant group's fighters and Iran's envoy to Beirut.
Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary condemned the detonation of the pagers - used by Hezbollah and others in Lebanon to communicate - as an "Israeli aggression". Hezbollah said Israel would receive "its fair punishment" for the blasts.
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.
Without commenting directly on the explosions in Lebanon, an Israeli military spokesman said the chief of staff, Major General Herzi Halevi, had met with senior officers on Tuesday evening to assess the situation. No policy change was announced but "vigilance must continue to be maintained", he said.
Hezbollah earlier confirmed in a statement the deaths of at least two of its fighters in the explosions and said it was conducting an investigation into their causes.
Hezbollah fighters have been using pagers as a low-tech means to try and avoid Israeli tracking of their locations, two sources familiar with the group's operations told Reuters earlier this year. A pager is a wireless telecommunications device that receives and displays messages.
The pagers were detonated in southern Lebanon, the southern suburbs of Beirut known as Dahiyeh and the eastern Bekaa valley - all Hezbollah strongholds.
By Laila Bassam
Iran warned on Sunday against any big new attack by the United States and its allies, saying it had information such a move was being prepared, adding to the anxiety in a region already on edge after drone and missile strikes on Saudi Arabia.
Maronite Patriarch Béchara Raï raised the stakes Sunday, declaring that southern Lebanon "is not a bargaining chip." In his Sunday homily in Mayfouk, in the Jbeil district, the cardinal called for the "protection" of the region, insisting that such protection "begins with the state holding a monopoly on weapons », a thinly veiled call for Hezbollah's disarmament.
The United States has warned it fears a "rapid escalation" of hostilities in the Middle East, following Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia that struck the kingdom's capital for the first time in months.
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