Taipei:Taiwanese company Gold Apollo said on Wednesday that the pagers used in the blasts in Lebanon on Tuesday were not made by it but by a Budapest-based company called BAC, which is licensed to use its brand. This came after reports emerged that Israel had planted explosives in Taiwanese-made pagers used by the militant group Hezbollah months before the explosions that killed nine people and injured nearly 3,000 on Tuesday.
Images of the destroyed pagers analysed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that matched those of pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. However, the company has denied making the pagers that exploded on Tuesday.
“The product was not ours. The only thing on it was our brand,” Gold Apollo founder and chairman Hsu Ching-Kuang told reporters at the company’s offices in New Taipei City, northern Taiwan, on Wednesday. The company said the AR-924 model was produced and sold by BAC. “We only provide the trademark authorization and have no involvement in the design or manufacturing of this product,” he added.
How did Israel manage to plant explosives?
Hsu had previously said the company that held the license was based in Europe, but later declined to comment on BAC’s location. Hezbollah fighters began using pagers in the belief that they could evade Israeli tracking of their location and communications. Hsu said he did not know how the pagers could be manipulated to explode.
Hsu added that Gold Apollo was also a victim of the incident. “We may not be a big company, but we are a responsible company,” he said. “This is very shameful.” Meanwhile, Hezbollah said it was carrying out a “scientific and security investigation” into the causes of the explosions. Several sources told Reuters that the plan to install explosives in Taiwanese-made pagers had been in the works for several months.
“The Mossad inserted a plate inside the device containing explosive material that receives a code. It is very difficult to detect it by any means. Even with any device or scanner,” the source said. The source said 3,000 of the pagers exploded when a coded message was sent to them, simultaneously activating the explosives.
Another security source told Reuters that up to three grams of explosives had been hidden in the new pagers, which Hezbollah had gone undetected for months. “This would easily be the biggest counterintelligence failure Hezbollah has had in decades,” said Jonathan Panikoff, a former deputy director of U.S. national intelligence for the Middle East.
‘The biggest security breach’
Hezbollah has blamed Israel for the pager blasts and vowed that it will receive “its just punishment,” according to a statement released by the militant group on Tuesday. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the blasts. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was also reported to have been wounded in the series of pager explosions, but a senior source denied the reports.
Several media outlets reported that the thousands of pagers exploded after receiving a “cryptic message.” If the claims were true, it would be the most advanced war against the Hezbollah group. A Hezbollah official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the detonation of the pagers was the “biggest security breach” the group had faced in nearly a year of war with Israel.
The incident comes at a time of rising tension between Lebanon and Israel. The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israeli forces have clashed almost daily for more than 11 months amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah-allied Hamas in Gaza. The clashes have killed hundreds of people in Lebanon and dozens in Israel and displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border.
(with contributions from the agency)
READ ALSO | Israel reportedly placed explosives in 5,000 Taiwanese-made pagers ordered by Hezbollah
Disclaimer:
The information contained in this post is for general information purposes only. We make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the post for any purpose.
We respect the intellectual property rights of content creators. If you are the owner of any material featured on our website and have concerns about its use, please contact us. We are committed to addressing any copyright issues promptly and will remove any material within 2 days of receiving a request from the rightful owner.