Reuters journalists in Beirut's southern suburbs heard at least two contained blasts in separate parts of the suburbs on Wednesday.

It was not immediately clear what had caused the explosions.

We will bring you developments as and when we can.

by Paul Thompson

The glamorous CEO of a company accused of manufacturing the exploding pagers that killed 12 people and injured thousands in one of the most audacious attacks ever launched by Israel on Hezbollah has been pictured.

Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono, who studied in London and lists 'disaster management' as one of her skills, is listed as the Chief Executive of the Hungarian-based company BAC Consulting said to have supplied the devices to the Lebanese group.

She has denied any involvement with the pagers and told a US TV station:' I don't make the pagers. I am just the intermediate. I think you got it wrong.'

Read more here:

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said Western backers of Israel should feel "shame" after paging devices belonging to Lebanon's Hezbollah exploded.

The deadly attack targeting the Tehran-aligned group has been blamed on Israel.

'Western countries and the Americans... fully support the crimes, killings and indiscriminate assassinations of the Zionist regime', Pezeshkian said in a statement, referring to Israel, adding that the explosions should bring them 'shame'.

by James Reynolds

Bodies fill the corridors of Beirut hospitals this morning as doctors desperately try to help those caught in a mass explosion of pagers across Lebanon yesterday.

Hezbollah operatives appeared to have been caught off guard by the detonation of thousands of pagers on Tuesday - an unprecedented attack on a technology brought in to replace mobile phones feared susceptible to Israeli hacking.

Israel and its military has not yet commented on the explosions, nor taken accountability for the attacks. Lebanese authorities were quick to blame 'Israeli aggression' as Hezbollah vowed revenge.

Read more here:

Lebanon's Hezbollah said on Wednesday it attacked Israeli artillery positions with rockets in the first cross-border attack since the pager blasts, Reuters has reported.

Israel's foreign ministry has reported rocket alarms have sounded in the north of the country.

Plain-clothes police officers have arrived at the address of BAC Consulting, a Budapest-based company accused of manufacturing the pagers which exploded in Lebanon, witnesses have told Sky News.

Individuals who apparently identified themselves as police officers reportedly asked not to be filmed when they attended the head office in the Hungarian capital.

It comes after Gold Apollo, a a Taiwan-based company, said the pagers were manufactured in Budapest by an entity called BAC Consulting Kft under a brand licensing deal before being delivered to Lebanon.

An executive of BAC Consulting Kft confirmed to NBC in a phonecall that the company worked with Gold Apollo but said 'I don't make the pagers. I am just the intermediary', before hanging up.

by David Averre

Almost 3,000 people were injured and at least 12 killed in Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday when pagers belonging to members of Hezbollah exploded in a shocking, co-ordinated attack of unprecedented scope and scale.

The crippling security breach is believed to be the result of a shady operation stretching from Hungary to Taiwan that was masterminded by Israel's foreign spy agency.

It is alleged that Mossad, working in collaboration with elements of Israel's Defence Forces (IDF), managed to infiltrate the supply chain and plant a small quantity of high explosives within the communication devices before they were delivered to Lebanon some time this spring.

Read more here:

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza would be the best way to stop violence from spreading in the Middle East.

Mr Blinken's visit to Cairo marks the 10th trip to the region since the start of the war that was sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel.

His visit aimed to salvage stalled negotiations mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the United States to end the conflict.

Speaking at a joint press conference alongside Egyptian Foreign Minister Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, Mr Blinken said

We discussed the importance of getting this deal across the finish line, something we'll continue to pursue with our Qatari counterparts. We all know that a ceasefire is the best chance to tackle the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, to address risks to regional stability.

Violence has surged in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the war broke out in Gaza, with Israel conducting large-scale raids in recent weeks.

by Jonathan Chadwick

Twelve people are dead and nearly 3,000 others wounded after thousands of pagers simultaneously exploded in the Middle East on Tuesday.

The coordinated attack targeted the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, and saw the small devices go off at around 15:30 local time across Lebanon and Syria.

It's thought the pagers – used because they were harder to track than smartphones – were booby-trapped by Israeli intelligence personnel with explosives that were triggered when a message was received.

Read more here:

Close to 3,000 people were injured across Lebanon yesterday when pagers exploded in an apparently co-ordinated attack carried out against Hezbollah.

The country's health minister Firass Abiad says 750 were injured in the south of Lebanon, and around 1,750 in the Beirut area.

While the UK-based watchdog Syrian Observatory of Human Rights has confirmed explosions in Syria's capital Damascus.

Here's a map showing where blasts were recorded on Tuesday.

These pictures captured by a Reuters photographer show it's business as ususal for these Lebanese street vendors ias they open up their wares the morning after a deadly pager attack.

The traders were pictured opening up their carts in Sidon, Lebanon's third-largest city where some pagers exploded on Tueday.

Antony Blinken has denied the US had any knowledge or involvement in the Lebanon pager blasts.

Speaking at a press conference alongsidehis Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty in Cairo, Mr Blinken said:

Broadly speaking, we have been very clear and we remain very clear about the importance of all parties avoiding any steps that could escalate the conflict we are trying to resolve in Gaza.

It is imperative all parties refrain from any actions that could escalate the conflict.

by Elena Salvoni

The Middle East is on the brink after a mass attack on Hezbollah saw thousands of its militants' pagers explode - just hours after Israel's prime minister vowed to step up military action against Lebanon.

While Israel has not confirmed that it was behind the pager blasts - which left some 2,800 Hezbollah members and civilians injured and nine dead in Lebanon and Syria - several security sources have blamed the IDF and Mossad spy agency for the attack.

Hostile rhetoric on both sides was building even before the blasts amid ongoing cross-border fire between Lebanon and Israel over the past year, as Hezbollah continues to pummel Israel in a show of support to its allies Hamas in Gaza.

Read more here:

Israel is pushing the whole Middle East to the brink of regional conflict by maintaining a dangerous escalation on several fronts, Jordan's foreign minister said on Wednesday.

In remarks after an Islamic and Arab ministerial contact group meeting in Amman to lobby for a Gaza ceasefire, Ayman Safadi said peace would not prevail without a two-state solution.

Good afternoon, we are providing live updates and reaction to the deadly pager bomb explosions in Lebanon yesterday which targeted Hezbollah terrorists.

Israel has been blamed for the attack by compromising pagers with lithium batteries in an audacious operation masterminded by Mossad, Israel's security services and the IDF

Here's what has happened today:

• Lebanon's health minister has provided an update on the bomb attack and said two children were among at least 12 killed
• Iran has accused Israel of 'mass murder' while Russia, Egypt and Turkey has shown support to Lebanon following the pager bomb attack yesterday
• A Taiwanese company said it authorised its brand on the that pagers that exploded but insisted the devices were manufactured in the Hungarian capital Budapest
• Security sources say Israeli military and intelligence personnel managed to access 5,000 pagers 'at production level' and insert a small amount of high explosives months before they were imported to Lebanon
• A US security official today said that the attack was planned for a later date as part of an 'all-out offensive' against Hezbollah, but Israel chose to detonate the devices early amid concerns the Lebanese group had become aware of the plan
• Lebanon's Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah will give a speech on Thursday, the group said in a statement on Wednesday

Firass Abiad said some of the injured have been moved to Iran and Syria and that more of he wounded may have to leave the country to receive specialist treatment.

Abiad said 750 were injured in the south of Lebanon, while there was around 1,750 casualties in the Beirut area.

Around 100 hospitals in Lebanon have admitted patients.

'After checking with all the hospitals', the toll was revised to '12 dead including two children', Abiad told a news conference.

The dead included a girl and a boy as well as four health workers from private hospitals in Beirut's southern suburbs who had pagers, he said.

Some cases in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley were transferred to Syria, while other cases would be evacuated to Iran, he added.

'A little less than 300 patients are in critical condition' with some suffering from face injuries and brain haemorrhaging, Abiad said.

The wounded who arrived at the emergency room were not all young men. We saw children and elderly people.

Firass Abiad, Lebanon's health minister, has told a press conference 12 people have been killed, including an eight-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy.

Healthcare workers were also among those killed when pagers exploded across the country yesterday.

These pictures show relatives mourning the death of a 10-year-old girl who was among the victims when pagers exploded across Lebanon on Tuesday.

The AFP news agency captured images during the funeral for Fatima Abdallah in the village of Saraain in the Bekaa valley.

At least nine people were killed when pagers detonated across the country while 2,750 were injured - 300 critically.

A Lebanese journalist who once worked for the BBC has described yesterday's pager bomb explosions as a 'national traumatic event'.

Kim Ghattas was returning to her home in Beirut from a funeral when the blasts were triggered.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Ms Ghattas, who now writes for The Atlantic after spending two decades at the BBC, said she felt 'emotion after emotion and trauma after trauma'.

It was really a scene of chaos across the city because people didn't instantly understand what was happening.

We first thought it was one large explosion in the south of Beirut, it then became clear there were simultaneous small explosions everywhere.

Then we started seeing CCTV from inside shops and supermarkets of these small explosions targeting people doing their groceries or paying at the checkout.

Then for hours on end [we heard] the wail of sirens. The internal security forces were asking people to get off the streets because traffic was overwhelming the city. It was really a national traumatic event.

The IDF has attacked a building where members of Hezbollah were based last night, it has emerged this morning

In a tweet posted on X, the IDF shared footage of the airstrikes and said:

Last night, IDF forces identified a number of terrorists from the terrorist organization Hezbollah while they were operating in a military structure in the Majdal Salem area of ​​southern Lebanon.

In closing a circle from the air, fighter jets attacked the structure where the terrorists were operating. In addition, fighter jets attacked the organization's military buildings in five different areas in the south Lebanon.

Concerns over a wider conflict in the Middle East have prompted international airlines to suspend flights to the region or to avoid affected air space.

Below are some of the airlines that have adjusted services to and from the region:

• Air Algérie - The Algerian airline suspended flights to and from Lebanon until further notice.
• Air France said it was suspending services to Beirut and Tel Aviv up to and including September 19.
• Air India - The Indian flag carrier suspended scheduled flights to and from Tel Aviv until further notice.
• Cathay Pacific - Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific cancelled all flights to Tel Aviv until March 27, 2025.
• Delta - The US carrier paused flights between New York and Tel Aviv through to October 31.
• EasyJet- The UK budget airline stopped flying to and from Tel Aviv in April and will resume flights on March 30, 2025, a spokesperson said.
• LOT Polish Airlines - Poland's national flag carrier suspended flights to Lebanon until further notice.
• Lufthansa - The German airline group said it was suspending all connections to and from Tel Aviv and Tehran up to and including September 19.
• Ryanair - Europe's biggest budget airline cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv until October 26, citing 'operational restrictions'.
• United Airlines - The Chicago-based airline suspended flights to Tel Aviv for the foreseeable future due to security reasons.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Cairo rejects any attempts at escalation in the region and supports Lebanon following the pager blasts, the Egyptian presidency said on Wednesday.

At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon on Tuesday.

The President affirmed Egypt's rejection of attempts to escalate the conflict and expand its scope regionally, pointing out the need for all parties to act responsibly, and reaffirming Egypt's support for Lebanon

Blinken is visiting Egypt hoping to advance efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and strengthen ties with Cairo.

We're getting some reaction from nations to the deadly pager attack in Lebanon.

Iran has accused Israel of 'mass murder' today after devices belonging to Tehran-aligned Hezbollah exploded.

Foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said in a statement he 'condemned the terrorist act of the Zionist regime... as an example of mass murder'.

The Iranian Red Crescent said on Wednesday it had dispatched 'rescue teams and eye surgeons' to Lebanon to treat the wounded.

There was no immediate comment from Israel

Elsewhere, Russia said it strongly condemned the deadly attack and called for 'all parties involved to exercise restraint'.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said:

We strongly condemn the unprecedented attack on friendly Lebanon and its citizens, which constitutes a flagrant violation of its sovereignty and a serious challenge to international law through the use of unconventional weapons.

Israeli and US sources have reportedly claimed the explosions carried out in Lebanon were triggered earlier than initially planned.

Media outlets Axios and Al-Monitor say insiders told them the detonations were intended to be the opening move in an "all-out" offensive against Hezbollah.

However, the attack was brought forward after Israel had grown concerned in recent days that Hezbollah had caught wind of the plan.

Video footage from inside a Beirut supermarket appears to show the moment Israel sent out its deadly message.

A Hezbollah attacker was seen confusedly lifting his shirt up at a supermarket after getting a message on his pager, which lit up.

He stared at it for a second before it detonated, collapsing him in an instant as supermarket workers and fellow shoppers panicked and fled.

Watch the video below:

The hundreds of pagers (not pictured) that exploded on Tuesday in Lebanon and Syria had apparently been acquired by the militant group Hezbollah after the group's leader ordered members in February to stop using mobile phones, warning they could be tracked by Israeli intelligence.

The pagers exploded simultaneously, killing at least nine people, including members of Hezbollah, and wounding more than 2,000, including the Iranian ambassador

A Hezbollah official told the Associated Press the pagers were a new brand, but declined to say how long they had been in use.

Taiwanese company Gold Apollo said it authorised its brand on the pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria, but they were manufactured by a company based in Budapest.

The AR-924 pagers were manufactured by BAC Consulting KFT, based in Hungary's capital, according to a statement by Gold Apollo.

It said: "According to the co-operation agreement, we authorise BAC to use our brand trademark for product sales in designated regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are solely the responsibility of BAC."

Gold Apollo chairman Hsu Ching-kuang told journalists on Wednesday that his company has had a licensing agreement with BAC for the past three years, but did not provide evidence of the contract.

The AR-924 pager, advertised as being "rugged", contains a rechargeable lithium battery, according to specifications once advertised on Gold Apollo's website before it was apparently taken down on Tuesday.

It could receive text messages of up to 100 characters.

by David Averre

A pager bomb attack that left roughly 2,800 Hezbollah members and civilians injured and nine dead in Lebanon and Syria yesterday was authored by Israel's Mossad spy agency and the IDF, several security sources claim.

The Lebanese group earlier this year ordered thousands of pagers to conduct communications after leader Hassan Nasrallah declared smartphones would be more susceptible to cyber attacks by Israeli forces.

Israeli military and intelligence personnel managed to access 5,000 pagers, produced in Budapest by BAC Consulting KFT, 'at the production level' and insert a small amount of high explosives months before they were imported to Lebanon, according to several security sources who spoke to Reuters.

Read more here:

This graphic produced for the Daily Mail newspaper shows how the pager bomb attack was carried out in Lebanon yesterday.

Israeli security services and its military are said to have filled the hand-held ordered by Hezbollah with one or two ounces of explosive material along with a detonating switch prior to their delivery.

A Hezbollah official said the new pagers that its members were carrying had lithium batteries.

Lithium batteries, when overheated, can smoke, melt and even catch on fire.

Rechargeable lithium batteries are used in consumer products ranging from phones and laptops to electric cars. Lithium battery fires can burn up to 590C.

Lebanon's Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah (pictured) will give a speech on Thursday, the group said in a statement on Wednesday.

Nasrallah is credited as one of the most powerful Shia figures in the Middle East who has left a lasting impact on Lebanon and its role in the Arab-Israel conflict.

Under his stewardship, Hezbollah has grown from a local armed movement to the largest political party in Lebanon’s recent history.

In 2018, Hezbollah won ore than 340,000 preferential votes, the most for any party in Lebanon since the country's independence in 1943

In October 2021, Nasrallah said Hezbollah had 100,000 fighters, making it among the most powerful non-national armed organisations worldwide.

The incident comes at a time of heightened tensions between Lebanon and Israel.

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israeli forces have been clashing near-daily for more than 11 months against the backdrop of war between Israel and Hezbollah's ally Hamas in Gaza.

The clashes have killed hundreds in Lebanon and dozens in Israel and displaced tens of thousands on both sides of the border.

On Tuesday, Israel said that halting Hezbollah's attacks in the north to allow residents to return to their homes is now an official war goal.

Israel has killed Hamas militants in the past with booby trapped cellphones and it's widely believed to have been behind the Stuxnet computer virus attack on Iran's nuclear programme in 2010.

Both Hezbollah and Lebanon's government have squarely blamed Israel for the attack. Though Israel has not yet commented on the matter, allies including the United States sought to distance themselves from the attack.

Hezbollah said in a statement:

'We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression,' adding that Israel 'will certainly receive its just punishment for this sinful aggression'.

In a second statement, the terror group added

After examining all the facts, current data, and available information about the sinful attack that took place this afternoon, we hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression that targeted civilians too.

Prominent Hezbollah politician Ali Ammar spoke to the Associated Press after his son, Mahdi, was killed.

This is a new Israeli aggression against Lebanon. The resistance will retaliate in a suitable way at the suitable time.

Lebanon’s prime minister Najib Mikati condemned ‘criminal Israeli aggression’ and called the attack ‘a serious violation of Lebanese sovereignty’.

Here's a quick rundown of the attacks carried out on Hezbollah terrorists yesterday:

• More than 300 people were rushed to hospital in a critical condition after pagers used by proscribed terror group Hezbollah detonated over a period of an hour yesterday afternoon.
• The detonators activated at around 3.30pm local time (1.45pm UK time) on Tuesday after receiving a message that purported to be from Hezbollah's top brass.
• Widespread panic and chaotic scenes were seen across Beirut's southern suburbs, the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon, while in neighbouring Syria 14 people were injured by the blasts, according to Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
• Victims were seen writhing in agony with hideous injuries to their faces, abdomens and even their groins in harrowing images and videos shared to social media and published on Lebanese networks.
• Among those reportedly killed were two girls, aged eight aged eight and ten, and the son of a Lebanese MP. Iran said its ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, also sustained injuries to his face and hand.
• Both Hezbollah and Lebanon's government have squarely blamed Israel for the attack. Though Israel has not yet commented on the matter, allies including the United States sought to distance themselves from the attack.

Firstly, let's bring you our current top story on the MailOnline website which reports Israel was involved in the deadly pager bomb attack

by Perkin Amalaraj and Sam Greenhill

Israeli spies were behind the pager bomb attack that killed nine, including two young girls, and left more than 2,750 people wounded across Lebanon.

The New York Times reported that Hezbollah's pagers were compromised in a joint operation between Mossad, Israel's shadowy intelligence agency, and the IDF.

The security service and military are said to have filled the pagers ordered by Hezbollah with one or two ounces of explosive material along with a detonating switch prior to their delivery.

Read more here:

Hello and welcome to MailOnline's live coverage of the pager bomb attack which targeted Hezbollah terrorists across Lebanon and Syria.

At least nine people were killed and 2,750 wounded, 300 critically, following a series of detonations of the hand-held devices on Tuesday afternoon.

Hezbollah immediately blamed Israel and vowed to exact revenge while the New York Times reported the pagers (pictured above) were compromised in a joint operation between Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, and the IDF.

We will bring you all the developments and reaction throughout the day as tensions between Israel and Hezbollah threaten to intensify further as both sides edge closer to war.