At least nine people were killed and 2,750 were wounded when pagers exploded simultaneously in Lebanon, the health minister said on September 17 after the Iranian-backed Hizballah militant group said two of its members and a girl were among those killed in the "mysterious" explosions.
Health Minister Firass Abiad said 200 of the injuries were critical, and Iran's ambassador in Beirut was among those injured, Iranian media reported.
Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary condemned the detonation of the pagers as an "Israeli aggression," while Hizballah said Israel would receive "its fair punishment" for the blasts.
Mojtaba Amani, Iran's ambassador in Beirut, was injured, Iranian media reported. The Fars news agency, which is close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, quoted an unidentified informed source as saying that Amani suffered a "superficial injury" as a result of a pager explosion.
The news channel of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Mehr news agency also reported that Amani was injured.
The pagers that exploded were the latest models of the devices that Hizballah imported into the country in recent month, Reuters reported, citing three unidentified sources.
Reports from Lebanon indicate that "hundreds" of members of the Lebanese Hizballah group, including fighters and aid workers, were injured in the explosion of the pagers in southern Lebanon and its suburbs.
The Lebanese Foreign Ministry called it an "Israeli cyberattack," adding that some of the pagers that exploded were in Syria. The ministry also said in a statement that it was preparing to submit a complaint to the UN Security Council.
"This dangerous and deliberate Israeli escalation is accompanied by Israeli threats to expand the scope of the war against Lebanon on a large scale, and by the intransigence of Israeli's positions calling for more bloodshed, destruction, and devastation," it said.
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the UN special coordinator for Lebanon, said in a statement that she deplored the attack, warning that it "marked an extremely concerning escalation."
Without commenting directly on the explosions, an Israeli military spokesman said the chief of staff, Major General Herzi Halevi, had met with senior officers to assess the situation. No policy change was announced but "vigilance must continue to be maintained," he said, according to Reuters.
The United States was not aware in advance and had no involvement in the explosions, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
The blasts came after weeks of private diplomacy by the United States to discourage Iran from retaliating against Israel for the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas political chief, in Tehran.
Amos Yadlin, the former head of Israeli military intelligence, told RFE/RL that whoever carried out the pager-explosion operation intended to send a "clear message" to Hizballah.
Yadlin said it could be a response to a plot to assassinate a senior Israeli security official that the Israeli security apparatus announced. He also noted that Hizballah continues its attacks on Israel as it tries to link itself to the Gaza conflict, and Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah does not want to stop these attacks.
The Israeli government decided on September 16 to add the safe return of its citizens to the north as a goal in the war. This was part of an Israeli cabinet announcement that was expanding its war objectives and the focus of its almost yearlong campaign against the extremist group Hamas, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union, in Gaza to confront Hizballah on its northern border with Lebanon.
Nasrallah must understand that his actions will lead to a shift in Israeli policy, Yadlin told RFE/RL.
"However, whether this policy shift will result in a full-scale war or a limited military operation will become clear in the coming days. In any case, we are now in a new phase," he said
The events coincide with the return of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the region to try to revive cease-fire talks on the Israeli-Hamas war.
While the focus of the war has been on Gaza, exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Hizballah, Hamas's ally in Lebanon, have killed hundreds of people, mostly militants in Lebanon and dozens of civilians and soldiers in Israel, and caused tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border to flee.
Israel's announcement on expanding its objectives came a day after Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that "military action" was the only way left for Israel's northern communities to return to their homes.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin discussed Middle East tensions with Gallant on September 17, the Pentagon announced.
"Secretary Austin spoke by phone today with his Israeli counterpart to touch base regarding ongoing tensions in the Middle East and the threats facing Israel," Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder told journalists.
Ryder declined to say whether the explosions were discussed.