<div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Hundreds of pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon Tuesday, killing at least nine people and wounding some 2,800 in blasts the Iran-backed militant group blamed on Israel.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the wave of explosions, which came just hours after Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the war sparked by Hamas's October 7 attacks to include its fight against Hezbollah along its border with Lebanon.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The blasts "killed nine people, including a girl", Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He added that some "2,800 people were injured, about 200 of them critically" with injuries mostly reported to the face, hands and stomach.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The 10-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member was killed in east Lebanon's Bekaa Valley when his pager exploded, the family and a source close to the group said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A son of Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Ammar was also among the dead, a source close to the group told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tehran's ambassador in Beirut was wounded in a pager explosion but his injuries were not serious, Iranian state media reported.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The influx of so many casualties all at once overwhelmed hospitals in Hezbollah strongholds.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">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.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"In all my life I've never seen someone walking on the street... and then explode," said Musa, a resident of the southern suburbs, requesting to be identified only by his first name.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert denounced in a statement "an extremely concerning escalation", urging all sides to refrain from any action "which could trigger a wider conflagration that nobody can afford".</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><b>- 'Remote detonation' -</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hezbollah blamed Israel for the blasts and warned it would be punished.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression," the group said in a statement, adding that Israel "will certainly receive its just punishment for this sinful aggression".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The United States, Israel's top arms provider and close ally, was "not involved" and "not aware of this incident in advance", said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The afternoon blasts hit Hezbollah strongholds across Lebanon and dealt a heavy blow to the militant group, which already had concerns about the security of its communications after losing several key commanders to targeted air strikes in recent months.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Analysts said Israeli intelligence services had somehow managed to infiltrate the supply chain used by Hezbollah for its pagers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute said: "This was more than lithium batteries being forced into override. A small plastic explosive was almost certainly concealed alongside the battery, for remote detonation via a call or page."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Israel's spy agency "Mossad infiltrated the supply chain", he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A source close to Hezbollah, asking not to be identified, told AFP that "the pagers that exploded concern a shipment recently imported by Hezbollah of 1,000 devices" which appear to have been "sabotaged at source".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><b>- Israel expands war aims -</b></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Early Tuesday, Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the Gaza war to include its fight against Hezbollah along its border with Lebanon.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To date, Israel's objectives have been to crush Hamas and bring home the hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the October 7 attack that sparked the war.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The political-security cabinet updated the goals of the war" to include "the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes", Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since October, the unabating exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Hamas ally Hezbollah in Lebanon have forced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border to flee their homes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Not formally declared as a war by Israel, the exchanges of fire have killed hundreds of mostly fighters in Lebanon, and dozens including soldiers on the Israeli side.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Monday, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant warned that failing a political solution, "military action" would be "the only way left to ensure the return" of displaced residents to the border area.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The possibility for an agreement is running out as Hezbollah continues to tie itself to Hamas," Gallant's office quoted him as telling visiting US envoy Amos Hochstein.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Netanyahu later told Hochstein he was seeking a "fundamental change" in the security situation on Israel's northern border.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem said at the weekend that his group had "no intention of going to war", but that "there will be large losses on both sides" in the event of all-out conflict.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><b>- Blinken headed back to region -</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due this week back in the region to try to revive stalled ceasefire talks for the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After months of mediated negotiations failed to pin down a ceasefire, Washington has said it was still working with mediators Qatar and Egypt to finalise an agreement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">US officials have expressed increasing frustration with Israel as Netanyahu has publicly rejected US assessments that a deal is nearly complete and has insisted on an Israeli military presence on the Egypt-Gaza border.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The October 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Militants also seized 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,252 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, which does not provide a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Tuesday, UN member states were debating a draft resolution demanding an end to the Israeli occupation of all Palestinian territories within 12 months.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">General Assembly resolutions are not binding, but Israel has already denounced the new text as "disgraceful".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In Gaza, rescuers said several Israeli air strikes killed at least seven people overnight.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; 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