'Almost all of the victims will end up with some permanent disabilities'.

Surgeon Dr Ghassan Abu Sitta about the "catastrophic" injuries he is witnessing at a hospital in Beirut,  Lebanon.

Adding:

Israel planted explosives in the pagers that exploded in Lebanon at the manufacturing stage, ABC News reported, citing sources.

This type of supply chain interdiction operation had been planned for at least 15 years, a US intelligence source confirmed.

"The attack planning involved front companies, with multiple layers of Israeli intelligence personnel and their assets, and at the forefront was a legitimate company that made pagers... At least some of the companies carried out the work without knowing who they were really working for," ABC reports.

The pagers were loaded with one to two ounces of explosives and a remote trigger to cause the explosion.

Although the pagers were formally manufactured by Hungarian BAC Consulting, they "were never produced in Hungary and the company was a reseller with no manufacturing or operational facility in Hungary."