TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) Gold Apollo, a Taiwanese business, stated on Wednesday that it permitted the use of its trademark on the pagers that detonated in Lebanon and Syria, but that they were made by another company in Budapest.
Pagers used by the terrorist organization Hezbollah exploded almost simultaneously Tuesday in Lebanon and Syria, killing at least nine people, including an eight-year-old girl, and injuring almost 3,000. Hezbollah and the Lebanese government claimed Israel for what seemed to be an advanced remote strike.
According to a statement made by Gold Apollo on Wednesday, the AR-924 pagers were produced by BAC Consulting KFT, which is situated in Budapest.
“According to the cooperation agreement, we authorize BAC to use our brand trademark for product sales in designated regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are solely the responsibility of around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, while people shopped for groceries, sat in cafés, or drove cars and motorcycles, the pagers in their hands or pockets began heating up and then exploding, leaving blood-splattered scenes and terrified witnesses.
Around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, while people shopped for groceries, sat in cafés, or drove cars and motorcycles, the pagers in their hands or pockets began heating up and then exploding, leaving blood-splattered scenes and terrified witnesses.
Many of those killed looked to be Hezbollah members, but it was unclear whether non-Hezbollah members were also carrying explosive pages.
According to Lebanese security authorities and a Hezbollah spokesman, the explosives occurred mostly in places where the party has a significant presence, including a southern Beirut neighborhood and the Beqaa region of eastern Lebanon, as well as Damascus. The Hezbollah official talked on the condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to address the media.
Hezbollah, which has blamed Israel, said in a statement Wednesday morning that it will continue its routine strikes against Israel “as in all the past days” as part of what it calls a support front for its partner, Hamas, and Palestinians in Gaza.
“This path is continuous and separate from the difficult reckoning that the criminal enemy must await for its massacre on Tuesday that it committed against our people, our families, and our fighters in Lebanon,” read the statement. “This is another reckoning that will come, God willing.“
On October 8, Hezbollah began shooting rockets across the border into Israel, the day after a fatal Hamas-led strike in southern Israel sparked a huge Israeli counteroffensive and the continuing Gaza conflict. Since then, Hezbollah and Israeli troops have traded attacks almost daily, killing hundreds in Lebanon and dozens in Israel while displacing tens of thousands on both sides of the border.
On Wednesday, the mayhem of the previous night had almost receded in Beirut hospitals, but families of the injured remained waiting.
Lebanon’s Health Minister Firas Abiad told the media during a hospital visit Wednesday morning that several of the injured had “severe injuries to the eyes” and that limbs had been severed. Journalists were not permitted to enter hospital rooms or film patients.
The health minister stated that the injured had been spread among all local hospitals to avoid any single facility becoming overburdened and that Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Egypt had volunteered to assist in treating the victims.
An Iraqi military jet carrying medical equipment arrived in Beirut earlier Wednesday, according to airport officials. Abiad stated that the jet was carrying 15 tons of medication and medical equipment.
Experts suspect explosives were inserted inside the pagers before delivery and used in a sophisticated supply chain intrusion.
The AR-924 pager, described as “rugged,” has a rechargeable lithium battery, according to specs previously displayed on Gold Apollo’s website until it was presumably pulled down Tuesday following the sabotage assault. It can accept messages of up to 100 characters.
It also claimed a battery life of up to 85 days. That would be critical in Lebanon, where power shortages are widespread following years of economic devastation. Pagers also use a separate wireless network than mobile phones, making them more robust in crises, which is why many hospitals across the world still use them.
According to Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs, Gold Apollo shipped 260,000 sets of pagers between January 2022 and August 2024, including more than 40,000 sets between January and August this year. The government stated that the pagers were mostly shipped to European and American countries, with no records of direct exports of Gold Apollo pagers to Lebanon.
Hezbollah terrorists also saw pagers as a way to avoid what is thought to be extensive Israeli electronic surveillance of mobile phone networks in Lebanon.
“The phone that we have in our hands—II do not have a phone in my hand—iis a listening device,” Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a February address.
He went on to say, “I tell you that the phone in your hands, your wife’s hands, and your children’s hands is the agent.” It is a lethal agent, not a simple one. It is a lethal agent that delivers precise and reliable information. As a result, dealing with it needs extreme seriousness.”
