Israeli spies were behind the pager bomb attack that killed nine, including two young girls, and left more than 2,750 people wounded across Lebanon.  

More than 300 people were rushed to hospital in a critical condition after pagers used by proscribed terror group Hezbollah detonated over a period of an hour yesterday afternoon. 

Widespread panic and chaotic scenes were seen across Beirut's southern suburbs, the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon, while in neighbouring Syria 14 people were injured by the blasts, according to Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. 

Victims were seen writhing in agony with hideous injuries to their faces, abdomens and even their groins in harrowing images and videos shared to social media and published on Lebanese networks. 

Among those reportedly killed were two girls, aged eight aged eight and ten, and the son of a Lebanese MP. Iran said its ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, also sustained injuries to his face and hand.

The New York Times reported that Hezbollah's pagers were compromised in a joint operation between Mossad, Israel's shadowy intelligence agency, and the IDF.

The security service and military are said to have filled the pagers ordered by Hezbollah with one or two ounces of explosive material along with a detonating switch prior to their delivery. 

The detonators activated at around 3.30pm local time (1.45pm UK time) on Tuesday after receiving a message that purported to be from Hezbollah's top brass. 

But instead, the message activated the explosives. 

Video footage from inside a Beirut supermarket appears to show the moment Israel sent out its deadly message. 

A Hezbollah attacker was seen confusedly lifting his shirt up at a supermarket after getting a message on his pager, which lit up.

He stared at it for a second before it detonated, collapsing him in an instant as supermarket workers and fellow shoppers panicked and fled.  

Though Israel may have intended to take out Hezbollah fighters, nearly 3,000 people, many of whom are civilians, were grievously injured in the spate of explosions.

Harrowing video footage taken inside medical institutes in the country's capital, Beirut, has revealed the severe consequences of the simultaneous explosions, which Hezbollah and Lebanon's government have blamed Israel for. 

One horrifying video opened with a man, covered head to toe in his own blood, with four of his fingers and his right eye missing. The video then pans over to another man sitting in a wheelchair with several fingers missing and blood across his face. 

The video then shows a man lying on a gurney with a large chunk of his abdomen missing, before showing a man carrying an unconscious child through the hospital. 

Another video showed patients writhing on the floor in agony as medical staff try desperately to treat them. 

White bandages can be seen wrapped around the limbs of people inside a hospital, with doctors' white coats covered in blood as they try to get through the throng of people inside the medical institution. 

Men, women and children can be heard howling in agony, while doctors and nurses try to shout over the noise to communicate with each other. 

One man, barely conscious, was seen being carried by two others through the hospital, as paramedics bring through another set of patients to treat. 

Both Hezbollah and Lebanon's government have squarely blamed Israel for the attack. Though Israel has not yet commented on the matter, allies including the United States sought to distance themselves from the attack. 

Lebanon’s prime minister Najib Mikati condemned ‘criminal Israeli aggression’ and called the attack ‘a serious violation of Lebanese sovereignty’.

Hezbollah says that Israel is 'fully responsible' for the simultaneous explosion, warning that the nation would be punished. 

'We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression,' the group said in a statement, adding that Israel 'will certainly receive its just punishment for this sinful aggression'. 

The terror group said in a second statement: 'After examining all the facts, current data, and available information about the sinful attack that took place this afternoon, we hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression that targeted civilians too.'

It added it would continue to support 'Palestinian resistance' and that the 'treacherous and criminal enemy will certainly be punished for this aggressive act.'

The Lebanese government, meanwhile, condemned the pager explosions as 'criminal Israeli aggression.'  

Prime Minister Najib Mikati said in a cabinet meeting today, following the incidents, that the attack was 'criminal Israeli aggression, which constitutes a serious violation of Lebanese sovereignty and a crime by all standards.'

There was no word last night from Israel but reports from Sky News Arabia ­suggested Mossad intercepted the pagers for Hezbollah five months ago and loaded them with explosives.

Retired IDF Brigadier General Amir Avivi, founder of Israel’s Defense and Security Forum, warned: ‘While Israel hasn’t confirmed it was behind the beeper attack, it has Mossad’s fingerprints all over it. Hezbollah certainly got the message. War between Israel and Hezbollah is imminent.’

Lebanon's health minister Firas Abiad told the BBC that most of the injuries suffered were to people's hands and faces. 

Most 'appear to be to the face and especially to the eyes, and also the hand with some amputations, whether it's in the hands or the fingers,' he said adding that the 'vast majority' of people in Lebanon's emergency rooms were in civilian clothing. 

Though this does not necessarily mean they are not Hezbollah, he admitted it made it 'very difficult to discern whether they belong to a certain entity like Hezbollah or others.

'But we are seeing among them people who are old or people who are very young, like the child who unfortunately died, and there are some of them who are health care workers.'

A senior Hezbollah official admitted it was the terror group’s ‘biggest security breach yet’. Although the group’s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was unharmed, Hezbollah vowed Israel would get its ‘fair punishment for this blatant aggression’.

Shocking footage captured on mobile phones showed groaning and wounded men being helped from cars. There were scenes of pandemonium in hospital wards as blood-soaked men with mangled limbs were stretchered in.

A man on a scooter was pictured leaning against a car, his torso ripped open. Another had been sitting at a street stall when his pager was detonated, blowing his hand off. Civilians in the Lebanese capital Beirut described seeing smoke coming from people’s pockets followed by a blast like a firework.

The Lebanon-based group, which has been conducting almost daily attacks over Israel’s northern border since the war in Gaza broke out, had switched their communications to old-fashioned-style radio pagers to stop mobile phone calls being intercepted.

The small devices receive but do not transmit signals, and were viewed as more secure than mobile phones.

Last night Iranian state media suggested the US knew of the plan but the US State Department said it was ‘not involved’.

As mass panic spread across Beirut yesterday, civilians became terrified to answer calls. Khadijeh Fouani, who was preparing winter food supplies when the attack began, answered her phone by screaming: ‘Please hang up! Hang up!’ Ahmad Ayoud, a butcher, said he saw a bleeding man tumble off a motorbike.

‘We all thought he got wounded from a random shooting,’ he said. ‘Then, a few minutes later, we started hearing of other cases. All were carrying pagers.’

Mohammed Awada, 52, said: ‘My son went crazy and started to scream when he saw a man’s hand flying away from him.’

Some of the pagers exploded in the Syrian capital Damascus, reportedly injuring at least 14.

Israel has been known to use phone bombs against its enemies. It assassinated Hamas’s military commander Yahya Ayyash in 1996 with an explosive-laden mobile, and killed another Palestinian militant in the West Bank by rigging a payphone he often used.

It came amid reports that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been preparing to sack his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, ahead of a major operation in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah has been staging attacks.

Israel and Hezbollah have been edging closer to war, with both sides intensifying strikes that have forced tens of thousands of Israelis and Lebanese to flee border towns. 

A senior Israeli official told the Mail: ‘Hezbollah has been attacking Israel for 11 months, causing 70,000 Israeli civilians to leave their homes and become refugees. This situation is unbearable. It’s equivalent to Manhattan being emptied of its residents.

‘No country would tolerate such a situation. It is Israel’s duty to protect its citizens from Hezbollah’s aggression.’

Last night the world held its breath amid speculation the pager operation was a prelude to a larger Israeli offensive. Lebanon’s foreign minister said his country was bracing for a major retaliation by Hezbollah.