Israel wants to extend the scope of the war in Gaza, the spokesman of Türkiye’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Ömer Çelik said Tuesday, regarding the explosion of pagers in Lebanon, which left at least eight people dead, over 2,700 others injured.
Criticizing Israel for its latest atrocity in Lebanon, Çelik said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s "massacre network" wants to spread the war.
"Israel’s aggression shows that this massacre network has no limits when it comes to committing murders," Çelik said.
He continued by saying that the positive stance of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas in cease-fire negotiations puts pressure on the government of Netanyahu, who wants to eliminate the pressure and expand the war.
"Netanyahu’s efforts to spread the war to Lebanon is a strategy shaped by political calculations," he said.
Hundreds of pagers exploded across Lebanon Tuesday, in an attack Hezbollah blamed on Israel.
The 10-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member was killed in east Lebanon's Bekaa Valley when his pager exploded, the family and a source close to the group said.
A son of Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Ammar was also among the dead, a source close to the group told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Tehran's ambassador in Beirut was wounded in a pager explosion but his injuries were not serious, Iranian state media reported.
The influx of so many casualties all at once overwhelmed hospitals in Hezbollah strongholds.
At one hospital in Beirut's southern suburbs, an AFP correspondent saw people being treated in a car park on thin mattresses, with medical gloves on the ground and ambulance stretchers covered in blood.
"In all my life I've never seen someone walking on the street... and then explode," said Musa, a resident of the southern suburbs, requesting to be identified only by his first name.
UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert denounced in a statement "an extremely concerning escalation", urging all sides to refrain from any action "which could trigger a wider conflagration that nobody can afford".