 "Lebanese army members outside the American University of Beirut Medical Center, in Beirut, Lebanon after a series of pagers and walkie-talkies blew up over two days. Reuters")
Lebanon is living in fear and everyday communication devices have become a source of their anxiety. Why? This dread comes following the two days of deadly pager and walkie-talkie blasts, which have killed at least 32 people and injured another 3,250.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but Hezbollah, which was the main target, has blamed Israel for the explosions and vowed retribution. The Jewish nation has remained mum, but experts and media reports are assuming it was responsible.
A day after the second attack, targeting walkie-talkies , questions continue to be asked: How did Israel tamper with the devices, what’s Israel’s motive for the attacks, and what happens next?
In this explainer, we try to uncover how these exploding devices — both the pagers and the walkie-talkies — make their way into Hezbollah’s hands.
Tale of Taiwan and the pagers
Shortly after hundreds of pagers blew up across Lebanon on Tuesday (September 17), all eyes turned towards Gold Apollo, a nondescript, small company based in a shabby Taipei suburb. That’s because the exploding pagers were identified to be manufactured by this company. Pictures on social media showed the exploded pagers to be the Gold Apollo AR924 model, billed as a compact waterproof device, which uses a rechargeable lithium battery.
A Lebanese official was also quoted as saying that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers by the Taiwan-based company Gold Apollo, and it was these new devices that blew up. Other sources said that these pagers had been brought into the country in the northern hemisphere spring.
Analysts at the open-source intelligence group Bellingcat also identified the pagers as coming from Gold Apollo.
As the news spread like wildfire, journalists stormed Gold Apollo’s office, seeking answers. The company’s founder and president, Hsu Ching-Kuang, and his team offered many explanations in the hours to come.
At first, a sales manager told the Financial Times that Gold Apollo had been selling to Lebanon for years.
But this changed shortly after. Hsu Ching-kuang in a press conference offered another explanation; he told reporters that the pagers were made by another company licensed to use its brand. “There is an agent in Europe whom we have cooperated with for three years, they are the agent for all of our products,” Hsu said.
“We are not a big company, but we are a responsible company that cares about our products,” he added.
A company statement stated later, “According to the agreement, we authorise BAC to use our brand trademark for product sales in specific regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are entirely handled by BAC.
“We only provide brand trademark authorisation and have no involvement in the design manufacturing of this product.”
Even with Gold Apollo attempting to steer responsibility away from the incident, it has left the island nation wary owing to the implications of being involved in a global conflict. Keeping that in mind, Taiwan’s Economic Affairs Ministry said that Gold Apollo had exported 260,000 pagers from 2022 to August 2024, and none of them had exploded so far.
“Was this batch of goods actually modified? … Did another manufacturer produce them and simply label them with the Apollo brand? This part is still under investigation by the authorities,” a ministry spokesperson told NBC News.
Moreover, Taiwan Defence Minister Wellington Koo said the government was closely watching developments. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Taiwan Cabinet spokesperson Lee Hui-chih also reiterated that pagers exported from the island “do not have a problem with exploding”.
Hungary and BAC
Gold Apollo’s Hsu identified the other company in Hungary to be BAC Consulting. As per Hsu’s statement, he entered into a deal with BAC almost three years ago. The contract signed by both said that Gold Apollo would sell its pagers to BAC and additionally also allow BAC to use Gold Apollo’s trademark on his own products.
BAC Consulting Chief Executive Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono has confirmed that her company worked with Gold Apollo. However, when asked about the exploding pagers, she said, “I don’t make the pagers. I am just the intermediate. I think you got it wrong.”
Later, Hungary’s government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs also waded into the issue, when he wrote on X that BAC is a “trading intermediary, with no manufacturing or operational site in Hungary. It has one manager registered at its declared address, and the referenced devices have never been in Hungary.”
Many point out that the message was Hungary’s way of trying to brush off any responsibility or involvement in the exploding pagers incident.
However, New York Times has dropped a bombshell. In a new report, the US media outlet states that BAC Consulting is part of an Israeli front.
Japan and the case of exploding walkie-talkies
A day after the pager explosions shocked Lebanon, came the walkie-talkie detonations. Initial investigations show that the exploding devices bore the brand Icom, a Japanese company.
The company almost immediately issued a statement that it was investigating if the exploding devices were actually theirs or counterfeits. In a statement, the firm said, “Earlier today in worldwide media, there have been reports that two-way radio devices bearing the Icom logo have exploded in Lebanon.
“We are currently investigating the facts surrounding this matter. We will release updated information as it becomes available on our website.”
The Japanese firm further added that production of model IC-V82, which appeared to be the one that exploded, was phased out in 2014.
The Osaka-based firm, which began in 1954, also pointed out that the images of the exploded devices didn’t bear the hologram sticker that Icom normally puts on each of their devices, which points to the fact that they may not actually be theirs.
Icom is known for manufacturing communication receivers and they are sold in more than 80 countries around the world, having subsidiaries in the United States, Australia, Germany, Spain and China.
And it seems that Icom is confident that the exploding devices are not theirs. An official from the company’s US subsidiary told AP, “I can guarantee you they were not our products.”
The Japanese government is also closely monitoring the reports. “We are currently gathering information,” Yoshimasa Hayashi, chief cabinet secretary, told reporters in Tokyo Thursday morning.
With inputs from agencies