Lebanese terror group Hezbollah has vowed to exact revenge on Israel for blowing up thousands of the group's pagers in an attack which killed nine and injured 3,000 people.
On Tuesday, Israeli spy agency Mossad detonated 5,000 Hezbollah devices in a meticulous attack which took months of forward planning.
The explosions maimed a multitude of Hezbollah members - injuring their faces and blowing holes in their hips and hands, according to footage from hospitals.
Among the dead and wounded were the Iran-backed group's fighters, as well as Iran's envoy to Lebanon's capital Beirut - but Israel has refused to comment on any involvement.
Footage from a grocery shop shows the moment one pager explodes on a man's hip
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Debris can be seen shooting across the room as the device detonates
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Despite the silence from Jerusalem, Hezbollah has promised to hit back in an ominous statement directly blaming its long-time adversary for the attack.
The group said: "We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression.
"Israel will certainly receive its just punishment for this sinful aggression."
A senior security source in Lebanon said Hezbollah had ordered the pagers from Taiwanese tech firm Gold Apollo - but the company has distanced itself from the devices, blaming Hungarian-based firm BAC Consulting, to which it had only licensed out its brand.
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A senior security source in Lebanon said Hezbollah had ordered the pagers from Taiwanese tech firm Gold Apollo
REUTERS
Gold Apollo insisted it was not involved in the production of the devices, while its founder Hsu Ching-kuang said there had been problems with remittances from BAC - payments from which had come through the Middle East.
The senior Lebanese source added that the devices had been modified by Mossad "at the production level".
They told Reuters how "Mossad injected a board inside of the device that has explosive material that receives a code. It's very hard to detect it through any means. Even with any device or scanner".
The source added how 3,000 of the pagers exploded when a coded message was sent to them, activating the explosives.
Chaos erupted across Lebanon as Hezbollah fighters were compromised in the blasts
REUTERS
Another security source said that up to three grams of explosives were hidden in the new pagers - used by Hezbollah to evade Israeli phone tracking - and had gone "undetected" for months.
One Hezbollah official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the detonation was the group's "biggest security breach" since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah ally Hamas erupted in Gaza following the latter's October 7 terrorist attack.
And the day before the attack, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told US counterpart Lloyd Austin the window was closing for a "diplomatic solution" to the standoff with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
Despite his warning, analysts have said they do not see the pager blasts as a sign that an Israeli ground offensive was imminent.
Though Hezbollah has said it does not seek a wider-ranging war with Israel, it has vowed it would fight if the country started one.
