The simultaneous explosion of hundreds of pagers that were being carried by Hezbollah operatives, and the detonation of walkie-talkies the following day, has caused chaos across Lebanon.

Here is how the attacks unfolded.

At 3.30pm on a bustling Tuesday afternoon in Beirut, Hezbollah members were going about their daily business when pagers started beeping across the city.

Some were shopping for fruit and vegetables while others were relaxing in parks or walking down the footpaths of the busy city.

When their devices started to beep, many of the Hezbollah operatives reached for their pagers and looked to find a coded error message on their screens.

It was then that the pagers exploded, killing and maiming those who were looking at their devices as well as bystanders including nine-year-old girl Fatima Abdallah.

It was alleged the innocent child had picked up her father’s pager when it rang out and it detonated while she was holding it in her hands.

Some Hezbollah operatives suffered hip and groin injuries when the pagers exploded on their belt clips, while others who were holding their devices lost their hands.

Others who were looking intently at the screens of the pagers to read the fatal message lost eyes.

Analysts blamed the attack on Mossad, Israel ’s intelligence service, alleging agents had intercepted the shipment of pagers, which originated in Taiwan, and planted a small amount of explosives inside each device.

In the aftermath of the blasts, which killed 12 people and wounded up to 2800, Lebanon’s hospitals were overwhelmed with casualties.

The following day, as mourners buried those who had been killed in the pager blasts, it happened again.

This time, Lebanon was rocked by a second wave of explosions, which were again blamed on Israel.

In the second round, walkie-talkies that had been covertly tuned into explosive devices, killed nine people and wounded more than 300, stoking fears of an all-out war with Israel.

Planning for the highly sophisticated operation could have begun last February, The Times reports, when Mossad spotted an opportunity after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah urged his members to stop using their smartphones, which he described as “spy gadgets”.