The United Nations on Friday denounced the detonation by Israel of hand-held communication devices used by Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon this week, saying the attack violated international law and could constitute a war crime. “International humanitarian law prohibits the use of booby-trap devices in the form of apparently harmless portable objects,” the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, told the Security Council, adding that it “is a war crime to commit violence intended to spread terror among civilians.” The blasts that killed at least 37 people and wounded nearly 3,000…