Surprise as Taiwanese company linked to Lebanon pager explosions

The mysterious pager and walkie-talkie explosions in Lebanon have stunned the world. This is what we know so far.

At 3.30pm on Tuesday, pagers all over Lebanon began exploding, hundreds of them all at the same time.

The world was stunned by the news of the exploding wireless communication devices, with reports now emerging of walkie-talkies, radios, laptops, intercoms, and batteries since blowing up too.

Hundreds are injured and dozens are dead.

The focus has now switched to how — and why it has happened.

Hezbollah has blamed Israel, while Israel has not made any comments.

It’s believed by many security experts, including in the US, that Israel’s intelligence service Mossad somehow intercepted a shipment of the pagers and rigged them with explosives.

According to reports, the radio system that the pagers use may have been hacked with doctored code.

And now in surprise move, a Taiwanese pager maker has been linked to the attacks, although it has issued a furious denial. It instead blamed a Hungarian firm — which has also issued denials.

The New York Times, citing American and other anonymous officials, reported that Israel had inserted explosive material into a shipment of pagers from Taiwan’s Gold Apollo.

Taiwanese prosecutors launched an investigation.

A man with an exploding pager in a marketplace. Picture: X

Taiwanese firm blames Hungarian company

Gold Apollo denied producing the devices and instead pointed the finger at its Budapest-based partner BAC Consulting KFT.

But Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said the company “is a trading intermediary, with no manufacturing or operational site in Hungary”.

“The referenced devices have never been in Hungary,” Mr Kovacs said on X, formerly Twitter.

He added the case “poses no national security risk” and Hungary was co-operating “with all relevant international partner agencies and organisations” in further investigations.

A Lebanese man injured after the pager attack.

A man lies injured after an explosion. Picture: Supplied

‘Not our products’

Earlier Wednesday, Gold Apollo head Hsu Ching-kuang said the pagers were “100 per cent not” made in Taiwan.

“They are not our products from beginning to end. How can we produce products that are not ours?” Mr Hsu told reporters in Taipei.

The company said in a separate statement that it has established a “long-term partnership” with the Hungarian company to use its trademark and the model mentioned in media reports “is produced and sold by BAC”.

Taiwan’s economic affairs ministry said Gold Apollo’s pagers made in Taiwan only have “a receiving function” and the capacity of their built-in battery “is about that of an ordinary AA battery that is not possible to explode to cause death or injury”.

“After reviewing media reports and pictures, we think it’s very questionable that (the model used) is the company’s product,” the ministry said, adding that there is no record of the company directly exporting to Lebanon.

The aftermath of an explosion.

A Lebanese army soldier uses razor wire to block an entrance of a Beirut southern suburb on September 17, 2024. Picture: AFP

But BAC Consulting CEO Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono told US broadcaster NBC News that her company worked with Gold Apollo, but did not make pagers.

“I don’t make the pagers. I am just the intermediate. I think you got it wrong,” NBC cited Ms Barsony-Arcidiacono as saying on the phone.

Ms Barsony-Arcidiacono did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment. The explosions in Lebanon killed 12 people, including two children, and wounded up to 2800 others.

Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah has blamed Israel for the attack.

A man holds a walkie talkie device after he removed the battery during the funeral of persons killed when hundreds of paging devices exploded in a deadly wave across Lebanon. Picture: AFP

Sole employee

At BAC Consulting’s registered postal address in a Budapest suburb, a woman there told reporters that the two-storey semi-detached building belongs to a company providing virtual business addresses.

Barsony-Arcidiacono appears to be the only employee of the company founded in 2022, according to legal documents consulted by AFP, which also report an annual revenue of 210 million forints ($US590,000) and profit of around 18 million forints.

On an archived version of a currently inaccessible website, the consultancy described itself as “agents of change with a network of consultants”, while Barsony-Arcidiacono touted her experience as a “strategic adviser” for international organisations.

The Times reported about 3000 pagers were ordered from Gold Apollo, mostly its AR924 model.

“Our company only provides the brand trademark authorisation and is not involved in the design or manufacturing of this product,” Gold Apollo said.

The company declined to comment further, citing ongoing investigations. “We have assigned the case to the chief prosecutor of the national security team to actively investigate. Our office will clarify the facts of the case as soon as possible,” Taipei’s Shilin District Prosecutors Office said in a statement.

“If there is any illegality involved, it will be severely punished in accordance with the law,” the office added.

A source close to Hezbollah, asking not to be identified, previously told AFP that “the pagers that exploded concern a shipment recently imported by Hezbollah of 1,000 devices” which appear to have been “sabotaged at source”.

There was no immediate comment from Israel on the explosions.

- with AFP

Originally published as Surprise as Taiwanese company linked to Lebanon pager explosions