Pager Explosions in Lebanon Kill 8, Injure Thousands

At least eight people were killed and 2,800 others including Hezbollah fighters, medics and Iran's envoy to Beirut were wounded when the pagers they use to communicate exploded across Lebanon, security sources and the Lebanese health minister Firass Abiad said.

A Hezbollah official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the detonation of the pagers was the "biggest security breach" the group had been subjected to in nearly a year of conflict with Israel.

Security camera footage of a market in Beirut captures this moment.

Something explodes seemingly from inside one person's pocket or bag, and the man falls to the floor crying in pain.

The pagers they use to communicate exploded.

The pagers began to detonate around 3:45 pm local time, and explosions continued for about an hour. It was not immediately clear how the devices were detonated.

The Israeli military declined to comment on enquiries about the blasts.

Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in cross-border warfare since the Gaza war erupted last October, the worst such escalation in years.

Iran's Mehr news agency said the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, seen here in July, was injured by one of the pager explosions.

A senior Hezbollah source said the group's leader, Syed Hassan Nasrallah, was not harmed.

The head of a public hospital in the south of the country said that around 40 wounded people were being treated at his facility. The wounds included injuries to the face, eyes and limbs.

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 blasts and said it would receive "its fair punishment."

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas denounced the pager explosions as a “crime that defies all laws.”