Two children among 12 dead in Lebanon pager blasts - minister

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Exploding pagers claimed the lives of 12 people in Lebanon, including two children, the country's health minister said Wednesday, updating the toll a day after the blasts blamed on Israel.

Hundreds of the wireless devices exploded simultaneously across Lebanon on Tuesday, hours after Israel said it was broadening the aims of the Gaza war to include its fight against Hamas ally Hizbollah.

Israel has yet to comment on the unprecedented attacks.

On Wednesday, Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said 12 people were killed and between 2,750 and 2,800 others were wounded, revising the tolls up from nine dead.

"After checking with all the hospitals", the toll was revised to "12 dead including two children", Abiad told a news conference.

The dead included a girl and a boy as well as four health workers from private hospitals in Beirut's southern suburbs, he said.

Hizbollah vowed on Wednesday to punish Israel for the deadly attack.

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

The attack came just hours after Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the war sparked by Hamas's October 7 attacks to include its fight against the Palestinian group's ally Hizbollah along the country's border with Lebanon.

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

On Wednesday, the group vowed in another statement on Telegram it would continue its fight in support of Gaza while reiterating it would avenge Tuesday's blasts.

"This path is ongoing and separate from the difficult reckoning that the criminal enemy must await for its massacre on Tuesday," the group said in a statement on Telegram.

Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah will make a previously unscheduled speech at 5:00 pm (1400 GMT) on Thursday, the group said.

"This was more than lithium batteries being forced into override," said Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute.

"A small plastic explosive was almost certainly concealed alongside the battery, for remote detonation via a call or page."

Israel's spy agency "Mossad infiltrated the supply chain", he said.

Hospitals overwhelmed 

The influx of so many casualties all at once overwhelmed hospitals in Hezbollah strongholds. 

At one hospital in Beirut's southern suburbs, an AFP correspondent saw people being treated in a car park on thin mattresses, with medical gloves on the ground and ambulance stretchers covered in blood.

"In all my life I've never seen someone walking on the street... and then explode," said Musa, a resident of the southern suburbs, requesting to be identified only by his first name.

The 10-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member was killed in east Lebanon's Bekaa Valley when his pager exploded, the family and a source close to the group said.

A son of Hizbollah lawmaker Ali Ammar was also among the dead, a source close to the group told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

Tehran's ambassador in Beirut was wounded but his injuries were not serious, Iranian state media reported.

The blasts hit Hizbollah strongholds across Lebanon and dealt a heavy blow to the militant group, which already had concerns about the security of its communications after losing several key commanders to targeted air strikes in recent months.

A source close to Hizbollah, asking not to be identified, told AFP that "the pagers that exploded concern a shipment recently imported by Hizbollah of 1,000 devices" which appear to have been "sabotaged at source".

After The New York Times reported the pagers had been ordered from Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo, the company said they had been produced by its Hungarian partner BAC Consulting KFT.

Following the wave of blasts, Lufthansa and Air France announced the suspension of flights to Tel Aviv, Tehran and Beirut until Thursday.

Israel expands war aims 

Early Tuesday, Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the Gaza war to include its fight against Hizbollah along its border with Lebanon.

To date, Israel's objectives had been to crush Hamas and bring home the hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the October 7 attacks.

Since October, the unabating exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Hamas ally Hizbollah in Lebanon have killed hundreds of mostly fighters in Lebanon, and dozens including soldiers on the Israeli side.

They have also forced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border to flee their homes.

On Monday, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant warned that failing a political solution, "military action" would be "the only way left to ensure the return" of displaced residents to the border area.