CONFLICT
Hezbollah blames Israel for deadly pager explosions
September 18, 2024 - Israel’s Mossad spy agency planted explosives inside 5,000 pagers imported by Hezbollah months before they detonated across Lebanon, killing at least 12 people and wounding nearly 3,000 – reports say.
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The blasts took place between 15:30 and 16:30 local time on Sep 17, where the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has a strong presence – the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh and the Bekaa Valley, as well as Syria’s capital, Damascus.
Citing U.S. officials, the New York Times said that the operation was the result of a supply-chain hack, allowing the Mossad operatives to plant explosives into the pagers before they were sold on to Hezbollah.
Labels seen on fragments of exploded pagers point to a pager model called the Rugged Pager AR-924. But Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo has denied any involvement with the explosions.
Gold Apollo founder Hsu Ching-Kuang said the pagers were made by a company in Europe that Gold Apollo named in a statement as BAC.
Israeli media reports suggest the operation was the result of a supply-chain hack, allowing the Mossad operatives to plant explosives into the pagers before they were sold on to Hezbollah.