Iran accused Israel on Wednesday of "mass murder" after paging devices belonging to the Tehran-aligned Hezbollah group in Lebanon exploded, killing nine people and wounding nearly 3,000 others.

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

European Union's top diplomat Josep Borrell said Tuesday he would seek more information from Beirut, where he just traveled from, as he came before journalists just after news broke from Lebanon of several hundred people being wounded by pagers exploding, including members of Hezbollah.

Suspicion immediately fell on Israel, which earlier Tuesday stressed that halting Hezbollah's attacks on Israel's north to allow residents to return to their homes was now an official war goal.

Hundreds of pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon Tuesday, killing at least nine people and wounding around 2,800 in blasts the group blamed on Israel.

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' October 7 attacks to include its fight against Hezbollah along Israel's border with Lebanon.

Hundreds of handheld pagers exploded near simultaneously across Lebanon and in parts of Syria on Tuesday, killing at least eight people, including members of the militant group Hezbollah and a girl, and wounding the Iranian ambassador, government and Hezbollah officials said.

Officials and Hezbollah pointed the finger at Israel in what appeared to be a sophisticated, remote attack that wounded more than 2,700 people at a time of rising tensions across the Lebanon border. The Israeli military declined to comment.

Officials in Israel's defense establishment are now strenuously contradicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's insistence that Israel maintain control of the narrow strip of land along the Gaza-Egypt border known as the Philadelphi Corridor, and warning that Netanyahu's reluctance to sign a cease-fire deal with Hamas is pushing Israel into a “potentially disastrous war with Hezbollah in Lebanon,” according to Israeli military and senior defense officials who spoke with ABC News.

The Israeli army said Tuesday that Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, has foiled an imminent “Hezbollah plot” to target a former security official with an explosive device.

Commissioner-General of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini met Tuesday with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib, in Beirut.

Lazzarini said he discussed with Berri the latest developments in the region including the war in Gaza, the "dramatic" situation in the West Bank, and the clashes in Lebanon.

The upcoming winter factor is what has pushed Israel’s political and military leaders to mull an imminent attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Jerusalem Post has reported.

French special envoy to Lebanon Jean-Yves Le Drian will visit Lebanon early next week, MTV said.

The local TV channel said it has learned from sources that Le Drian will visit Lebanon next Tuesday or Wednesday and that the ambassadors of the five-nation group for Lebanon - the United States, France, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Qatar - will not meet before Le Drian's visit.

A U.S. official has told U.S. news portal Axios that "it would be crazy" of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fire an experienced minister of defense like Yoav Gallant amid a war in Gaza and as Israel might be heading towards a possible all out war in Lebanon.