A photo taken on September 18, 2024 in the southern outskirts of Beirut shows the remains of an exploded pager on display in an undisclosed location.
– | AFP | Getty Images
Taiwanese pager maker Gold Apollo has denied reports that it made the devices at the heart of the deadly attacks in Lebanon that killed at least 12 people and injured around 3,000.
Thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded simultaneously across Lebanon on Tuesday evening, sending local emergency services into overdrive as hospitals overwhelmed with the injured. Lebanese security sources said the pagers contained explosives planted by the Israeli spy agency, Mossad.
“This product is not ours. It just has our brand on it,” Gold Apollo founder and president Xu Qingguang told reporters in New Taipei City, Taiwan on Wednesday, according to Reuters. He went on to say that the device, model AR-924, was made by a Budapest, Hungary-based company called BAC Consulting.
Gold Apollo said in a statement cited by Reuters that it had “granted BAC permission to use our brand trademarks to sell products in certain territories, but BAC is fully responsible for the design and manufacturing of the products.”
BAC did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Hezbollah, Lebanon’s most powerful Iranian-backed militant and political group, said it had distributed pagers to members who had stopped using mobile phones to evade Israeli surveillance.
Hezbollah called the act an “Israeli aggression,” but Israel has not commented on the explosion. Among the injured was Iranian ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani, and the son of a Hezbollah member of parliament was killed in the attack.
Lebanese groups engaged in near-daily gun battles with Israel in the south have vowed to retaliate, raising fears of an all-out war in a region already ravaged by conflict. Hezbollah Thousands of rockets Lebanese troops have been invading Israel for nearly 12 months since Israel began its war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7. Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in both Lebanon and Israel.
Hezbollah leaders have previously said they do not want a larger war but will fight if provoked by Israel. Just hours before the pager explosion, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared his government’s goal to allow Israeli citizens displaced by Hezbollah attacks to return to their homes in northern Israel.
