Hezbollah exploding pagers latest: Israel braces for retaliation after 9 killed in Lebanon attack

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) is braced for a response after Hezbollah accused Israel of being behind the pager explosions that has killed at least nine people.

Around 2,800 people have been left injured after a spree of simultaneous detonations of the handheld devices on Tuesday afternoon.

An advisor to Lebanon’s health minister Firass Abiad said that 200 people had sustained critical injuries, with an eight-year-old girl among the dead.

More than 50 ambulances and 300 emergency medical workers rushed to help the victims, with people urged to donate blood the Lebanese Red Cross said.

An investigation has been launched to determine the causes of the blasts, while one Hezbollah official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the detonation was the “biggest security breach” the group had been subjected to in nearly a year of war with Israel .

The explosions occurred in a southern suburb of Beirut known as Dahiyeh, and other towns in central and southern Lebanon.

The Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was injured by one of the blasts, Iran’s Mehr news agency reported. Two security sources also told Reuters that one of the fighters killed was the son of a Hezbollah member of the Lebanese parliament.

The Israeli military has so far declined to comment.