pager blasts that killed nine people and injured 2,800 across Lebanon on Tuesday marked "an extremely concerning escalation" nearly one year into the Gaza war, the UN said.
"This was an extremely concerning escalation in what is already an intolerably volatile context," UN special coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said in a statement.
She appealed for "all concerned actors to refrain from any further action, or bellicose rhetoric, which could trigger a wider conflagration that nobody can afford."
Hennis-Plasschaert "underlines the urgency of restoring calm and calls on all concerned actors to prioritize stability as paramount," the statement continued, ending with the conclusion that "too much is at stake to do anything less.".
At least nine people were killed in the attack in Lebanon, according to officials. One of those killed was a 10-year-old girl, said Firass Abiad, Lebanon's Health Minister.
The casualty figures now stand at about 2,750 injured, including Iran's ambassador to Beirut, Mojtaba Amani, officials have reported.
Hezbollah fighters in Syria, too, were casualties of the attack with several reportedly being treated in hospitals in Damascus. Saberin News, affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, said that some guards have been killed in Syria.
A Hezbollah official described the explosion of the pagers as the "biggest security breach" for the group in nearly a year of conflict with Israel. The blasts appeared to exploit the low-tech pagers Hezbollah has adopted to avoid targeted assassinations of its members. The pagers were apparently a new brand.
Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel. Hezbollah said two of its fighters were among the dead and threatened a "just punishment" for Israel.
"We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression that also targeted civilians," the group said. The son of the Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar reportedly also died in the explosions, as did two sons of other prominent Hezbollah figures.
The Israeli military had no immediate reaction to the blasts. Hours before, Israel announced that it was expanding the objectives of the war it had launched in response to the October 7 Hamas attacks to include its fight against Hezbollah.
The attack followed months of targeted assassinations by Israel against senior Hezbollah leaders.
Lebanon's health ministry ordered hospitals to place themselves under "maximum alert" and asked the citizens to stay away from wireless communication devices. Hezbollah runs its own communication network that is independent of what remains of Lebanon.
It also comes as US officials try to de-escalate tensions between the two sides and could derail US efforts to prevent Iran from retaliating against Israel for the July bombing in Tehran that killed the Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.
The US said it "was not aware of this incident in advance."
US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller Wednesday in a press briefing said the US was not involved and did not know who was responsible. "Too early to say" how it would affect Gaza ceasefire talks, he further added.
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