Hand-held radios used by Hezbollah have detonated across Lebanon’s south and in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a security source and a witness say, further hiking tensions with Israel a day after similar explosions launched via the group’s pagers.
A Hezbollah official told the Associated Press walkie-talkies used by the group exploded as part of blasts heard in Beirut.
At least one of the blasts late on Wednesday afternoon took place near a funeral organised by Hezbollah for those killed the previous day when thousands of pagers used by the group exploded across the country and wounded many of the group’s fighters.
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today 
The group, which was thrown briefly into disarray by the pager attacks, said on Wednesday it had attacked Israeli artillery positions with rockets in the first strike at its arch-foe since blasts wounded thousands of its members in Lebanon and raised the prospect of a wider Middle East war.
The hand-held radios were purchased by Hezbollah five months ago, about the same time that the pagers were bought, a security source said.
Israel’s spy agency Mossad, which has a long history of sophisticated operations on foreign soil, planted explosives inside pagers imported by Hezbollah months before Tuesday’s detonations, a senior Lebanese security source and another source told Reuters.
The death toll rose to 12, including two children, Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said on Wednesday.
Tuesday’s attack wounded nearly 3000 people, including many of the militant group’s fighters and Iran’s envoy to Lebanon.
A Taiwanese pager maker denied that it had produced the pager devices that exploded in the audacious attack.
Gold Apollo said the devices were made under licence by a company called BAC, based in Hungary’s capital Budapest.
The Iran-aligned Hezbollah said in a statement it would continue to support Hamas in Gaza and that Israel should await a response to the pager “massacre” which left fighters and others bloodied, hospitalised or dead.
One Hezbollah official said the detonation was the group’s “biggest security breach” in its history.
Footage from hospitals reviewed by Reuters showed men with various injuries, some to the face, some with missing fingers and gaping wounds at the hip where the pagers were likely worn.
The plot appears to have been many months in the making, several sources told Reuters.
It followed a series of assassinations of Hezbollah and Hamas commanders and leaders blamed on Israel since the start of the Gaza war.