8 dead and 2,750 injured in Hezbollah pager explosion in Lebanon

The explosions on Tuesday afternoon occurred in several Hezbollah strongholds across the country, the first such incident since the group began almost daily firefights with Israel in support of its ally Hamas.

Earlier on Tuesday, Israel announced an expansion of the objectives of the war triggered by the Hamas attacks on October 7. This war will now also include the fight against Hezbollah along the northern border with Lebanon.

Until now, Israel’s goals have been to crush Hamas and bring home the hostages kidnapped by Palestinian militants in the October 7 attacks that sparked the war.

“The Security Cabinet this evening updated the objectives of the war to include the following section: the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement early Tuesday.

Since October, ongoing exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Hamas-allied Hezbollah in Lebanon have forced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border to flee their homes.

Although it is not formally a war, the exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Hezbollah have killed hundreds of people, mostly fighters in Lebanon, and dozens on the Israeli side.

According to Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad, hundreds of people were injured in Tuesday’s explosions across the country.

A source close to Hezbollah said dozens of members of the group were injured in explosions in Beirut’s southern suburbs and the south of the country. Another source said the incident was the result of an “Israeli intrusion” into Hezbollah’s communications.

There was initially no comment from the Israeli military.

After the Gaza war began, Hezbollah instructed its members to avoid mobile phones and instead rely on their own telecommunications system to prevent Israeli intrusions.

On Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that “military action” was the “only remaining way to ensure the return of Israel’s northern communities.”

Hezbollah, which like Hamas is supported by Israel’s arch-enemy Iran, claimed responsibility for a dozen attacks on Israeli positions on Monday and three more on Tuesday.

According to the Lebanese Health Ministry, three people were killed in Lebanon in an Israeli attack on Tuesday. Israel said the victims were members of Hezbollah.

“The possibility of an agreement is fading as Hezbollah continues to forge ties with Hamas,” Gallant was quoted as saying in a statement from his office to US envoy Amos Hochstein.

Netanyahu later told Hochstein that he was seeking a “fundamental change” in the security situation on Israel’s northern border.

Hezbollah’s deputy leader, Naim Qassem, said at the weekend that his group had “no intention of going to war,” but that in the event of a full-scale conflict there would be “heavy losses on both sides.”

At present, it is unlikely that Israel’s fight against Hezbollah will ever end.

“Without a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, there will be no agreement on the issue of the border with Lebanon,” said Michael Horowitz of the security consultancy Le Beck International.

Israel’s goal in expanding the war is to “create a buffer zone in southern Lebanon,” Horowitz added.

Hamas, meanwhile, said it was preparing for another war with the help of fighters and support from across the region.

In a letter to the group’s Yemeni allies, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar said: “We have prepared for a long war of attrition.”

“Our joint efforts with you … will break this enemy and inflict defeat on him,” Sinwar said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due to return to the region this week to try to revive stalled ceasefire talks in the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Although a ceasefire has not been reached after months of mediation, the United States continues to urge all sides to reach a final agreement.

To close the remaining gaps, Washington is working “quickly” on a new proposal, said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.

Miller said Blinken would visit Egypt this week to “discuss ongoing efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza that will ensure the release of all hostages, alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people, and help establish broader regional security.”

US officials have expressed growing frustration with Israel after Netanyahu publicly rejected the US assessment that the deal was almost complete and insisted on an Israeli military presence on the Egypt-Gaza border.

Despite increasing pressure, he failed to agree to a hostage release agreement that enjoys broad Israeli public support.

The attack on southern Israel on October 7 that sparked the war left 1,205 people dead, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures.

The militants also captured 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still in the Gaza Strip. According to the Israeli military, 33 of them are dead.

At least 41,252 people have been killed in Gaza as a result of Israel’s military retaliation, according to the Health Ministry of the Hamas-controlled area. However, a breakdown of the number of civilian and militant deaths has not been published.

On Tuesday, UN member states will debate a draft resolution calling for an end to Israel’s occupation of all Palestinian territories within twelve months.

The General Assembly resolutions are not binding, but Israel has already described the new text as “disgraceful”.

At least seven people were killed in several Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip overnight, according to rescue workers.

“This war has left nothing untouched and destroyed everything in us: our mental and physical health, our social fabric, our future and our dreams,” said Ola Halilo, a 32-year-old Gazan living in a makeshift refugee camp.

“It separated us from our loved ones and destroyed everything beautiful in our lives.”