Western intelligence sources consulted last night by The New York Times They are a novelty after the series of explosions against targets of the Islamist militia Hezbollah, which have left at least twelve dead and nearly 3,000 injured. The remotely triggered pagers are Taiwanese-made. And not only that. The recorded explosions do not respond to the expected explosion of a lithium battery, but to the injected material, which is difficult to detect because it weighs 50 grams or less.
The Taiwanese response was swift. On Wednesday, the company Golden Apollo denied exporting pagers to Lebanon in recent years and identified a Lebanon-based company as responsible for their production. Hungary and called “BAC”.
According to Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs, Gold Apollo exported 260,000 pagers between 2022 and August 2024 and, in the first eight months of this year, sold 40,929 units of these devices abroad, mainly to the United States and Europe. “There is no evidence of an explosion related to these products, nor any evidence of direct export to Lebanon,” the ministerial portfolio emphasizes, which “will continue to assist the company in subsequent investigations.”
Regarding the model that allegedly caused Tuesday’s explosion, the ministry said that after reviewing images and media reports, There are “doubts” as to whether these are Gold Apollo pagerssuggesting that the devices in question “were modified in another country after being exported.”
The Taipei-based company said the Budapest-based company is responsible for producing equipment allegedly involved in the blast. “Under the agreement, we allow BAC to use our trademark for the sale of products in specific regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products is entirely managed by BAC,” Gold Apollo’s statement read.
In previous statements to a group of journalists, the president of Golden ApolloHsu Ching-kuang, said the company had been working with the distributor for two years. “The pagers involved in the explosions had been on the market for less than two years,” Hsu said, adding that he would promote an “international trial” over the incident, according to statements carried by Taiwanese media outlet CTI News.
