As the Biden administration says it is working hard to ease tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, tensions rose to unprecedented levels Tuesday after Israel launched an unprecedented cyberattack on Hezbollah members and leaders that killed eight people and wounded 2,750 in a series of pager explosions, according to security sources and the Lebanese Health Ministry.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said on Tuesday, in response to a question from the Jerusalem correspondent at his daily press conference at the US State Department, that the United States had no involvement or knowledge of these explosions, noting that experts believe that this type of technology, which relies on artificial intelligence only, is available to the US military, which uses it from the air via C-130 aircraft.

The attack, which Hezbollah attributed to Israel in a statement, directly contradicts the Biden administration’s ongoing, intensive efforts to maintain diplomatic efforts rather than military escalation. Hours earlier, US envoy Amos Hochstein had urged senior Israeli officials not to escalate the conflict with Hezbollah, warning of potentially dire consequences.

Hochstein made direct appeals to both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant—whom U.S. officials have long considered their preferred interlocutor in the Israeli security cabinet—to advocate for a diplomatic solution on the Israeli-Lebanese border. Galant’s hawkish views on Lebanon have been a source of concern among U.S. officials since the aftermath of Oct. 7. The potential dismissal of Galant is certainly a source of concern for U.S. officials—both for the dismissal of a defense minister on the cusp of a regional war and for the unceremonious removal of a balanced voice in Israel’s hardline cabinet.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made a similar appeal to Galant before news of his impending dismissal broke, with the Pentagon noting that “Israel must give diplomatic negotiations time to succeed, noting the devastating consequences that escalation could have on the people of Israel, Lebanon, and the broader region.”

Both Austin and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will make direct appeals during their visits to the Middle East in the coming days in hopes of averting further escalation.

Blinken arrived in Egypt on Tuesday for a 48-hour visit “to discuss ongoing efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza that secures the release of all hostages, alleviates the suffering of the Palestinian people, and helps establish broader regional security,” according to the State Department, and Austin is also expected to visit the region in the coming days.

Blinken's visit to Egypt comes a day after he met with Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid in Washington, where senior US officials urged the need to secure a ceasefire and avoid further escalation in the north.

The Lebanese caretaker Health Minister, Firas Abiad, announced in a press conference that 9 people, including a child, were killed and more than 2,800 were injured in the explosions of Hezbollah pagers, which occurred today, Tuesday, in several areas in Lebanon.

Al-Abyad also reported that most of the injuries were in the hand. Among the dead were two Hezbollah members.

The Lebanese National News Agency quoted a statement by Hezbollah, in which it said that the devices were in the possession of "a number of employees in its various units and institutions," describing the explosions as "mysterious."

Since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip, which has been ongoing for a year, Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged shelling and rocket fire on the Israeli-Lebanese border, leaving dozens of Hezbollah members and civilians dead and wounded in southern Lebanon, in addition to the displacement of tens of thousands of them to areas considered safer.