Hezbollah chief admits 'major' blow in device blasts, vows 'just punishment'

The leader of Hezbollah acknowledged on Thursday that his group had suffered a "major and unprecedented" blow after thousands of operatives' communication devices exploded across Lebanon in deadly attacks it blamed on Israel.

In his first speech since the attacks, which killed 37 people and wounded nearly 3,000 more across two days, Hassan Nasrallah also struck a defiant tone, vowing that Israel would face a "just punishment".

Even as he delivered his televised address, Israeli warplanes broke the sound barrier over Beirut.

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Describing the attacks as a "massacre" and as a possible "act of war", Nasrallah said Israel would face "tough retribution and a just punishment, where it expects it and where it does not".

Israel has not commented on the attacks in which Hezbollah operatives' pagers and walkie-talkies exploded in supermarkets, on streets and at funerals, plunging the country into panic.

But its defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said on Wednesday, in reference to Israel's border with Lebanon: "The centre of gravity is moving northward."

"We are at the start of a new phase in the war," he warned.

Hezbollah is an ally of Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has been fighting a war in Gaza since its October 7 attack on Israel.

For nearly a year, the focus of Israel's firepower has been on Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas.

But its troops have also been engaged in near-daily clashes with Hezbollah militants along its northern border, killing hundreds in Lebanon, most of them fighters, and dozens in Israel.

The exchanges of fire have forced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border to flee their homes.

Nasrallah vowed to keep up Hezbollah's fight against Israel until a ceasefire in Gaza is reached.

"The Lebanese front will not stop until the aggression on Gaza stops" despite "all this blood spilt," he said.

On Thursday, the Israeli military said it struck six Hezbollah "infrastructure sites" and a weapons storage facility overnight in southern Lebanon, a stronghold of the militant group.

Lebanon's official National News Agency also reported Israeli strikes and shelling on several towns in the south.

The Israeli military said two soldiers were killed near the border with Lebanon.

Hezbollah said 25 of its members had been killed following the explosions, with a source close to the group saying at least 20 had died when their walkie-talkies detonated.

Lebanon's Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said the "blatant assault on Lebanon's sovereignty and security" was a dangerous development that could "signal a wider war".

Its prime minister, Najib Mikati, urged the United Nations to oppose Israel's "technological war" on the country, ahead of a UN Security Council meeting on the exploding devices attack.

Iran's envoy to the UN said his country "reserves the right to take retaliatory measures" after its ambassador in Beirut was wounded in the blasts.

The White House, which is pressing to salvage efforts for an elusive ceasefire deal to end the Gaza war, warned all sides against "an escalation of any kind".

"We don't believe that the way to solve where we're at in this crisis is by additional military operations at all," said US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.

The October 7 attacks that sparked the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, on the Israeli side, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures that include hostages killed in captivity.

Out of 251 hostages seized by militants, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,272 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to data provided by the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. The UN has acknowledged these figures as reliable.

In Gaza on Wednesday, the civil defence agency said an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter killed five people. The Israeli military said it targeted Hamas militants.

In Lebanon, the influx of so many casualties following the blasts overwhelmed medics.