Nine People Killed And 2,750 Others Injured In The Pager Explosion In Lebanon, Hezbollah Will Reply To Israel

JAKARTA - Lebanese militant group Hezbollah vowed to retaliate against Israel after accusing the country of blowing up its pager in Lebanon on Tuesday that killed nine people and injured nearly 2,800 people, including their members and Iran's ambassador.

Pager exploded in southern Lebanon, a southern suburb of Beirut known as Dahiyeh and the eastern Bekaa Valley, all of which are Hezbollah's strongholds.

"We consider Israel's enemies to be fully responsible for this criminal aggression," Hezbollah said in a statement late Tuesday.

"These dangerous and criminal enemies will surely receive commensurate retaliation for this sinful aggression, both from places that are taken into account and those that are not taken into account," the statement added.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati also blamed Israel for the explosion, saying it was "a serious violation of Lebanon's sovereignty and a crime in all standards".

Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary condemned the explosion of the pager in the afternoon. The death toll increased from eight to nine on Tuesday night while the injured remained at 2,750, the Lebanese Ministry of Health said.

Hezbollah himself confirmed in a previous statement that the death involved at least two members and a young girl.

After Tuesday's explosion, the downstream ambulance rushed past Beirut's southern suburbs amid widespread panic.

At Mount Lebanese Hospital outside Beirut, motorcycles rushed to the emergency room and people with hands covered in blood screamed in pain.

Head of the Nagatieh general hospital in the south of the country Hassan Wazni said about 40 injured people were treated at his facility. The injuries include injuries to the face, eyes and limbs.

One of the injured victims was the Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani. He suffered a "light injury" in the incident and is under surveillance at the hospital, Iran's semi-official news agency, Fars said.

It is known that the Hezbollah group used pagers as a means of low-tech communication in a bid to avoid tracking Israeli locations, two sources familiar with the group's operations told Reuters this year. Pager is a wireless telecommunications device that receives and displays messages.

Hezbollah did not say what they believed was the cause of the explosion of the bombs. Meanwhile, the Israeli military was reluctant to respond to questions about the explosion.

Without commenting directly on the explosion in Lebanon, an Israeli military spokesman said that Chief of Staff Major General Herzi Halevi met with senior officers on Tuesday night to assess the situation. No policy changes have been announced but "alertitude must be maintained", he said.

Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel immediately after the October 7 attack by Palestinian armed militants led by Hamas in Israel that sparked the Gaza war.

Since then, Hezbollah and Israel have been shooting each other, while avoiding major escalations.

Hezbollah has lost more than 400 fighters in Israeli attacks over the past year, including its main commander Fuad Shukr in July.