'Civilian objects' should not be weaponised: UN chief on Lebanon pager explosions

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday that civilian objects should not be weaponised, in the wake of a deadly wave of explosions across Lebanon targeting pagers used by Hezbollah.

"I think it's very important that there is an effective control of civilian objects, not to weaponise civilian objects — that should be a rule that... governments should, be able to implement," Guterres said at a briefing at UN headquarters.

Hundreds of wireless paging devices belonging to members of the Iran-backed group exploded simultaneously on Tuesday, hours after Israel said it was broadening the aims of the Gaza war to include its fight against Hamas's Lebanese ally.

Those explosions killed 12 people and wounded up to 2,800, with new device blasts reported by Lebanese state media on Wednesday.

"As important as the event in itself, is the indication that this event confirms that there is a serious risk of a dramatic escalation in Lebanon -- and everything must be done to avoid the escalation," Guterres said.

"What has happened is particularly serious, not only because of the number of victims that it caused, but because of the indications that exist that this was triggered, I would say, in advance of a normal way to trigger these things, because there was a risk of this being discovered."

Hezbollah, which has traded near daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces in support of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, has vowed to retaliate for the pager blasts, which it blamed on Israel.

Israel has not yet commented on the explosions.