Hezbollah said it holds Israel “fully responsible” for deadly pager explosions across Lebanon, which killed at least nine people and wounded 2,750 others, including a young girl. The Lebanese armed group said the “treacherous and criminal enemy will certainly be punished for this aggressive act”.

    Israel declined to comment on the detonations. The simultaneous explosions came less than 24 hours after the Israeli cabinet expanded goals for the war on Gaza to include returning residents displaced by Hezbollah’s attacks in northern Israel to their homes.

    In the Gaza Strip, dozens of Palestinians were feared dead under the rubble following an Israeli attack on the Bureij refugee camp as medics said at least 20 people had been killed across the enclave on Tuesday.

    At least 41,252 people have been killed and 95,497 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza. In Israel, the number of those killed in the Hamas-led attacks on October 7 was at least 1,139 while more than 200 people were taken captive.

    Hospitals across Lebanon treating influx of patients after pager blasts

    Hospitals across Lebanon have received hundreds of patients after exploding pagers injured nearly 3,000 people on Tuesday.

    Here is how some witnesses described the situation in Lebanon’s hospitals:

•     At one hospital in Beirut’s southern suburbs, an AFP correspondent saw people being treated in a car park on thin mattresses, with medical gloves on the ground and ambulance stretchers covered in blood.
•     At Mount Lebanon Hospital outside Beirut, a Reuters reporter saw motorcycles rushing to the emergency room and people with bloodied hands screaming in pain.
•     In southern Lebanon, the head of the Nabatieh public hospital, Hassan Wazni, told Reuters that about 40 wounded people were being treated at his facility. The wounds included injuries to the face, eyes and limbs.

    A recap of recent developments

•     At least nine people have been killed, including an eight-year-old girl, and 2,750 have been wounded in simultaneous pager explosions of pagers used by Hezbollah members across Lebanon and Syria.
•     The communication devices had apparently been acquired after the Lebanese group’s leader ordered members in February to stop using mobile phones, warning they could be tracked by Israeli intelligence.
•     The group says it holds Israel “fully responsible” for the deadly blasts and pledged that the “treacherous and criminal enemy will certainly be punished for this aggressive act”.
•     There has been no official comment by Israel, but it has urged its citizens to exercise caution after Hezbollah promised retaliation.
•     Israeli attacks have continued across the Gaza Strip, with at least 22 Palestinians killed in a day of deadly assaults in the besieged enclave.
•     Palestine’s envoy to the UN Riyad Mansour has appealed to the UN General Assembly to vote in favour of a resolution calling for Israel’s withdrawal from occupied Palestinian territory on Thursday.
•     US Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has called for an end to Israel’s war on Gaza and says it must not reoccupy the Palestinian enclave once the conflict is over.