Gold Apollo says it did not make pagers used in Lebanon explosion

TAIPEI: Taiwan’s Gold Apollo did not make the pagers that were used in the detonations in Lebanon on Tuesday, the company’s founder Hsu Ching-Kuang told reporters on Wednesday.

At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon on Tuesday.

Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo.

Hsu said the pagers used in the explosion were made by a company in Europe that had the right to use the Taiwanese firm’s brand.

According to certain officials, the pagers bought by Hezbollah from Gold Apollo in Taiwan were tampered with before they reached Lebanon. The majority were the company’s AP924 models, although three additional Gold Apollo variants were also included in the shipment.

What we know about the pager blasts in Lebanon that claimed eight lives?

The explosive substance, which might weigh between one and two ounces, was implanted adjacent to the battery in each pager, The New York Times reported while citing two officials. A switch was also included that could be activated remotely to explode the explosives.

Israel reportedly hid explosives inside a batch of pagers ordered from Gold Apollo and destined for Hezbollah, the New York Times reported Tuesday. A switch was embedded to detonate them remotely, it added. 

Hundreds of pagers carried by Hezbollah members in Lebanon blew up nearly simultaneously on Tuesday in an unprecedented attack that surpasses a series of covert assassinations and cyber-attacks in the region over recent years in its scope and execution.

The Iran-backed militant group said the wireless devices began to explode around 3:30 p.m. local time in a targeted Israeli attack on Hezbollah operatives.

CNN learned that Israel was behind the attack, which was a joint operation between Israel’s intelligence service, the Mossad, and the Israeli military. The Lebanese government condemned the attack as “criminal Israeli aggression.”