(Bloomberg) -- Lebanon’s death toll from a series of walkie-talkie and pager explosions this week rose to 37, according to local authorities, an illustration of the devastation wrought by suspected Israeli attacks aimed at Hezbollah militants.

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A second wave of blasts on Wednesday killed 25 and injured more than 600, the Lebanese health ministry said. Some occurred at funerals for Hezbollah members who died the previous day when thousands of pagers — most of them carried by the Iran-backed group — exploded in supermarkets, streets and homes across the country. Two children were killed in the near simultaneous detonations on Tuesday and around 2,300 people were wounded.

The attacks have increased fears of a full-blown war between Hezbollah and Israel, which neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the operations. Israel has diverted more troops to its northern border with Lebanon in recent days, with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declaring a “new phase” in the country’s battles against Islamist militant groups.

Two Israeli soldiers were killed in attacks in the north of the country close to Lebanon on Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement, without giving further detail. State-run Lebanese media reported Israeli warplanes flying over Beirut.

While there are few signals an invasion of Lebanon is imminent, Israeli officials have said diplomacy with Hezbollah is failing and they’ll be forced into more aggressive action to move the group’s fighters and weapons away from the border. “Hezbollah will pay an increasing price,” Gallant said on Thursday.

Israel continues to combat Hamas in Gaza and cease-fire talks have stalled, though the intensity of that conflict is easing. Israel remains committed to destroying the Palestinian group and retrieving hostages held in Gaza since the war began almost a year ago, Gallant said, but it is focused more and more on Hezbollah.

The commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hossein Salami, said Israel will face a crushing response for this week’s escalation and threatened “the destruction of this cruel and criminal regime,” according the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.

Hezbollah is the strongest of the Iran-backed regional groups targeting Israel, with tens of thousands of fighters and at least as many missiles and rockets, according to Israeli intelligence estimates. Many Israelis fear it could overwhelm their country’s vaunted air defenses in the event of an all-out conflict.