People gather outside a hospital, as hundreds of members of the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, including fighters and medics, were seriously wounded when the pagers they use to communicate exploded, in Beirut, Lebanon, Sept. 17, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Thousands of members of the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, including fighters and medics, were seriously wounded on Tuesday when the pagers they use to communicate exploded.

A Hezbollah official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the detonation of the pagers was the “biggest security breach” the Iran-backed group had been subjected to in nearly a year of war with Israel.

Up to 2,750 people were injured in Lebanon due to exploding pagers, and at least eight people were killed, according to Lebanon’s minister of health.

The explosions took place amid heightened violence between Israel and Hezbollah, who have been engaged in cross-border warfare since the Gaza war erupted last October in the worst such escalation in years.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military to media inquiries about the detonations.

However, despite Israel’s silence, Lebanon has already blamed the Jewish state.

The Lebanese foreign ministry described the explosions as a “dangerous and deliberate Israeli escalation,” adding that it had been “accompanied by Israeli threats to expand the war towards Lebanon on a large scale.” Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary similarly said the government condemned the events as “Israeli aggression.”

Hezbollah, which wields significant political and military influence across Lebanon, also blamed Israel for the explosions, saying the Jewish state would receive “its fair punishment.” Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was not hurt in the explosions, the group said.

Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani was injured by the pager explosion.

“Amani has a superficial injury and is currently under observation in a hospital,” Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency quoted a source as saying.

The Syrian Center for Human Rights, a Syrian opposition body, reported that some Hezbollah operatives who were injured in the beeper attack arrived for treatment at hospitals in Damascus.

A Reuters journalist saw ambulances rushing through the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut amid widespread panic.

Residents said explosions were taking place even 30 minutes after the initial blasts. The security source added that devices were also exploding in the south of Lebanon.

Groups of people huddled at the entrance of buildings to check on people they knew who may have been wounded, the Reuters journalist said.

Regional broadcasters carrying CCTV footage showed what appeared to be a small handheld device placed next to a grocery store cashier where an individual was paying spontaneously exploding. In other footage, an explosion appeared to knock out someone standing at a fruit stand at a market area.

Lebanon’s crisis operations center, which is run by the health ministry, asked all medical workers to head to their respective hospitals to help cope with the massive numbers of wounded coming into for urgent care. It said health care workers should not use pagers.

Hospital services across the country also appealed for blood donations.

Earlier on Tuesday, Israel‘s Shin Bet security agency said it had foiled a plot by Hezbollah to assassinate a former senior defense official.

Hezbollah has fired barrages of rockets, missiles, and drones at northern Israel almost daily following the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists on the Jewish state’s southern region. Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging fire constantly ever since, while avoiding a major escalation as war rages in Gaza to the south.

About 80,000 Israelis have been forced to evacuate their homes in northern Israel and flee to other parts of the country amid the constant fire from Hezbollah.