The wave of exploding pagers that injured nearly 3,000 and killed at least nine, including a 9-year-old girl, in Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday was a stunning and unexpected blow against Israel’s longtime foe,

Hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah have seen a swing. However, since Tuesday, tensions have escalated after the Lebanon-based militant group alleged that the Jewish nation was responsible for exploding devices,

At around 3:30 in the afternoon on Tuesday, the pagers across Lebanon began beeping, delivering a message from Hezbollah leadership to their operatives through a chorus of chimes, melodies, and buzzes.

Three firms are implicated in the attacks crippling Hezbollah, but no one claims to have made the deadly devices themselves.

As thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah fighters exploded across Lebanon, the militant group held Israel responsible. Experts agree; they believe it was a joint operation between the Israeli military and the spy agency,

Anti-tank missiles fired from Lebanon caused injuries, Israel’s public broadcaster reported. The Israeli military said it had struck several Hezbollah sites in Lebanon.

Israel’s Mossad spy agency is believed to be behind the operation, Chris Stevenson writes, which likely took months of planning