【Epoch Times Special Report on 24th September 2024】Lebanon’s Hezbollah’s pagers exploded across Lebanon on September 17, causing 2,800 injuries and at least 9 deaths. While Israel refuses to acknowledge any involvement in the incident, Israeli media has voluntarily disclosed many previously unknown details. However, there are still numerous unresolved mysteries.
After the explosion, people noticed that the pagers displayed that the devices were manufactured by Gold Apollo company in Taiwan, but the company vehemently denied any involvement.
The head of the company, Xu Qingguang, publicly stated on September 18 that his company had no connection to the design and production of these pagers. The products in question were produced and sold by a Hungarian company, BAC, with Gold Apollo only providing the brand trademark authorization to BAC.
After an investigation, the Taiwan government also clearly stated that the production of the pagers was not related to Taiwan. Taiwan’s Minister of Economic Affairs, Guo Zhihui, emphasized on September 20 in an interview with the media, “I can affirmatively say they are not manufactured in Taiwan.”
Following the clues provided by Gold Apollo in Taiwan, attention shifted to the Hungarian company, BAC.
Public records show that BAC Consulting was established in 2022 and registered in a building in the 14th district of Budapest, Hungary’s capital. The company engages in selling telecommunications equipment, producing computer games, and various other businesses, with sales of nearly 600,000 USD last year. The company only registered one person as the sole employee and CEO. As of now, their company website has been closed.
The spokesman for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban stated that the pagers that exploded “never” originated from Hungary. The government spokesperson, Zoltan Kovacs, mentioned in a post on X platform, “Authorities have confirmed that the company (BAC) is a trading intermediary and does not have manufacturing or operation bases in Hungary.”
However, Hungarian news site Telex reported that a Bulgaria-based company named Norta Global Ltd sold pagers to Hezbollah. This led Bulgarian authorities to immediately launch an investigation into the company.
Norta Global Ltd was registered in Sofia, Bulgaria, by a Norwegian citizen in April 2022, a month before BAC was registered in Hungary. According to registration information, the company’s business was listed as “technical project management.” The company did not list any employees, used a Bulgarian free email address, a Norwegian registered phone number directed straight to voicemail.
Based on registered data, Norta Global Ltd generated approximately 750,000 USD in revenue from consultancy activities last year but was not profitable. The company’s website also closed last Thursday.
After an investigation, Bulgaria’s State Agency for National Security (DANS) on September 20 stated that it had “undeniably confirmed” that the pagers used in the Lebanese attack did not import to or export from Bulgaria and were not manufactured in Bulgaria.
The Bulgarian government further stated that Norta Global Ltd and its Norwegian owner did not conduct any operations, sales, or purchases within Bulgaria’s jurisdiction.
So where were these mysterious pagers manufactured? It is understood that Norway, Romania, and many other countries are currently working diligently to uncover the answers, but it remains a mystery to this day.
According to a Lebanese security source who spoke to Reuters, Hezbollah believes these pagers were ordered from Gold Apollo in Asia, not Europe.
Apart from this major enigma, there are several unresolved mysteries, such as how did the adversaries infiltrate Hezbollah’s supply chain? How were the pagers remotely detonated?
On the second day after the pagers’ explosion, hundreds of walkie-talkies across Lebanon also exploded, all sharing the same issue.
Many Lebanese people are still questioning whether their other devices, such as cameras, phones, or laptops, are also rigged with explosives?
Israeli TV Channel 12, on September 21, in a long report citing sources, stated that the pagers were detonated individually, with the attackers possessing knowledge of the target, their location, and the presence of others nearby, determined to ensure only the carriers of the pagers would be harmed.
“Each pager had its specific arrangement. This way, they can control who gets hit and who doesn’t,” the report quoted a foreign security source anonymously.
“They knew who he (the target) was with and where he was, so the vegetable vendor in the supermarket wouldn’t be harmed,” the report continued, quoting another unnamed foreign security source.
The report mentioned that they produced “tens of thousands of pagers” and during the manufacturing process, they knew customers would scrutinize them. Hence, the pagers had to function normally, with no traces of explosives. Their appearance and weight had to remain unaltered.
A investigative journalist interviewed for the report stated that the entire plan was conceived by a female intelligence agent under 30 from the Middle East.
The report claimed that the person responsible for the incident decided to establish a factory to manufacture these devices from scratch – “This way it wouldn’t be our tampered equipment; it would be the equipment we produced.”
Pagers are wireless communication devices, palm-sized, capable of receiving and displaying simple text messages, popular in the 1990s. However, today, pagers have been largely replaced by mobile phones, with only specific industries or locations still using them. So why is Hezbollah still using this outdated equipment?
Hezbollah’s backers are Iran, and due to Iran’s refusal to acknowledge Israel’s existence, their hostile relationship has persisted for decades.
The report stated that Hezbollah believes that in case of a significant escalation, Israel could pose a threat to their mobile communications, prompting extensive usage of pagers. Particularly after Hezbollah military leader Fuad Shukr was killed in a targeted IDF attack in Beirut in July, Hezbollah purchased more pagers.
However, Hezbollah cannot purchase openly on the market as suppliers fear US sanctions, so they must often work through intermediaries.
The online newspaper of Israel, “The Times of Israel,” in its report quoted on September 21, obtained approval from the Israeli military review agency.
Regarding why the pagers detonated last week, there were rumors that it was due to concerns that trojans would be discovered by Hezbollah. Channel 12 quoted a foreign security source saying, “That is not the case. It is because Israel decided it needed to intensify actions against Hezbollah.”