Lebanon's Information Minister Ziad Makary said the government condemned the detonation of the pagers as an "Israeli aggression." Hezbollah also blamed Israel for the pager explosions and said it would receive "its just punishment."
A Hezbollah official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the detonation of the pagers was the "largest security breach" the group had been subjected to in nearly a year of conflict with Israel.
Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have been engaged in a cross-border war since the Gaza war broke out last October, in the worst escalation of its kind in years.
Hezbollah confirmed in a statement the death of at least three people, including two of its fighters. The third person killed was a girl, he said, adding that an investigation was underway into the causes of the explosions.
Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was not injured in the explosions, the group said.
The wave of explosions lasted approximately one hour after the initial detonations, which took place around 3:45 p.m. local time. It was not immediately clear how the devices were detonated.
The Lebanese Foreign Ministry described the explosions as a "dangerous and deliberate Israeli escalation" which it said had been "accompanied by Israeli threats to expand the war into Lebanon on a large scale."
Lebanese internal security forces said several wireless communication devices were detonated across Lebanon, especially in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold. The pagers that detonated were the latest model introduced by Hezbollah in recent months, three security sources said.
Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said 2,800 people had been injured in the explosions, 200 of them seriously. Among the wounded are Hezbollah fighters who are children of senior officials of the armed group, two security sources told a major media portal.
One of the slain fighters was the son of a Hezbollah member of the Lebanese parliament, Ali Ammar, they said. Iran's ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, suffered a "superficial wound" in a pager explosion and is currently under observation in hospital, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency said. There was no word from the Israeli government about the explosions.
In neighboring Syria, 14 people were injured "after pagers used by Hezbollah exploded," the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Israel announced it would expand the goals of the war sparked by Hamas attacks to include its fight against Hezbollah along its border with Lebanon.
To date, Israel's goals have been to crush Hamas and bring home hostages taken by Palestinian militants during the October 7 attacks that sparked the war.
On Tuesday, Israel's internal security agency said it had foiled a plot by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah to assassinate a former top defense official in the coming days.
The Shin Bet agency, which did not name the official, said in a statement that he had seized an explosive device connected to a remote detonation system, using a mobile phone and camera that Hezbollah had planned to operate from Lebanon.
A Hezbollah official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the detonation of the pagers was the "largest security breach" the group had been subjected to in nearly a year of conflict with Israel.
Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have been engaged in a cross-border war since the Gaza war broke out last October, in the worst escalation of its kind in years.
Hezbollah confirmed in a statement the death of at least three people, including two of its fighters. The third person killed was a girl, he said, adding that an investigation was underway into the causes of the explosions.
Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was not injured in the explosions, the group said.
The wave of explosions lasted approximately one hour after the initial detonations, which took place around 3:45 p.m. local time. It was not immediately clear how the devices were detonated.
The Lebanese Foreign Ministry described the explosions as a "dangerous and deliberate Israeli escalation" which it said had been "accompanied by Israeli threats to expand the war into Lebanon on a large scale."
Lebanese internal security forces said several wireless communication devices were detonated across Lebanon, especially in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold. The pagers that detonated were the latest model introduced by Hezbollah in recent months, three security sources said.
Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said 2,800 people had been injured in the explosions, 200 of them seriously. Among the wounded are Hezbollah fighters who are children of senior officials of the armed group, two security sources told a major media portal.
One of the slain fighters was the son of a Hezbollah member of the Lebanese parliament, Ali Ammar, they said. Iran's ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, suffered a "superficial wound" in a pager explosion and is currently under observation in hospital, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency said. There was no word from the Israeli government about the explosions.
In neighboring Syria, 14 people were injured "after pagers used by Hezbollah exploded," the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Israel announced it would expand the goals of the war sparked by Hamas attacks to include its fight against Hezbollah along its border with Lebanon.
To date, Israel's goals have been to crush Hamas and bring home hostages taken by Palestinian militants during the October 7 attacks that sparked the war.
On Tuesday, Israel's internal security agency said it had foiled a plot by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah to assassinate a former top defense official in the coming days.
The Shin Bet agency, which did not name the official, said in a statement that he had seized an explosive device connected to a remote detonation system, using a mobile phone and camera that Hezbollah had planned to operate from Lebanon.
