Reacting to a series of explosions in Lebanon that took the lives of civilians and targeted beepers used by Hezbollah, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres insists that civilian objects must not be weaponized.

‘I feel it is very helpful if there is effective control of civilian objects, not to weaponize civilians – let that be a rule that governments should be able to implement,’ the Secretary-General said at a briefing at the UN headquarters.

At least 400 of the wireless paging devices carried by members of the Iran-backed group exploded on Tuesday following the escalation of the conflict in Gaza as Israel declared the war intends to demoralize and cripple Hamas’s Lebanese ally.

Those explosions caused twelve deaths and up to 2,800 injuries; Lebanon’s state media announced new device blasts on Wednesday. “The event is as important as the signal it sends that such an event means there is a risk of a significant escalation in Lebanon — and every effort must be made to avoid such escalation,” Guterres said.

‘This has happened’ is particularly shocking, not only in terms of how many people it cost lives but in terms of evidence that exists that this was, in fact, carried out ahead, you could say, of a normal way to trigger stuff like this because there was a risk that it will be found out.’

Hezbollah has been firing near daily cross-border shots against Israeli forces in support of Hamas in the Gaza Strip and vowed to avenge the pager blasts it accused Israel of being behind.