1 day Ago By Peter Holmes
The boss of Taiwanese pager company Gold Apollo has denied fresh claims by the New York Times that it was the manufacturer of hundreds – and possibly thousands – of pagers that exploded in Lebanon. According to reports nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 injured as the coordinated explosions occured across Lebanon on Tuesday afternoon, local time. The Times says “small amounts of explosive were implanted in beepers that Hezbollah had ordered from a Taiwanese company, according to American and other officials briefed on the operation”.
The Lebanese political party and paramilitary group Hezbollah blamed Israel, which has yet to comment. Al Jazeera quoted the Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad as saying an eight-year-old girl was among those killed, and that more than 200 people are in critical condition after sustaining injuries mostly reported to the face, hands and stomach. Per the Times : “Israel carried out its operation against Hezbollah on Tuesday by hiding explosive material within a new batch of Taiwanese-made pagers imported into Lebanon .
.. A Gold Apollo AL 924 pager for sale on eBay.
“The pagers, which Hezbollah had ordered from Gold Apollo in Taiwan, had been tampered with before they reached Lebanon, according to some of the officials. Most were the company’s AP924 model, though three other Gold Apollo models were also included in the shipment.” The newspaper said the explosive material, as little as one to two ounces, “was implanted next to the battery in each pager .
.. A switch was also embedded that could be triggered remotely to detonate the explosives”.
Gold Apollo founder Hsu Ching-kuang told reporters on Wednesday morning that his firm had signed a contract with a European distributor to use the Gold Apollo brand, according to CNN. “Hsu said the distributor, which he did not name, established a relationship with Gold Apollo about three years ago,” the news site said. “At first, the European company only imported Gold Apollo’s other pager and communication products, he said.
Later, the company told Gold Apollo they wished to make their own pager and asked for the right to use the Taiwanese company’s brand, he said.” Reuters quoted him as saying: “The product was not ours. It was only that it had our brand on it.
” The Gold Apollo website was not accessible on Wednesday afternoon. Al Jazeera reported that Hezbollah said in a statement Israel was responsible and would get “its fair punishment”, and quoted a Hezbollah official saying the explosion of the pagers was the “biggest security breach” the group has experienced since October 7, 2023, when Israel’s war on Gaza began following the Hamas attacks on Israel. A Gold Apollo AL 924 pager for sale on eBay.
Reuters reported that a senior Lebanese security source said Israel’s Mossad spy agency planted explosives inside 5,000 pagers imported by Hezbollah “months before Tuesday’s detonations”. It said Hezbollah fighters have been using pagers “as a low-tech means of communication in an attempt to evade Israeli location-tracking”, but that “the devices had been modified by Israel’s spy service at the production level”. “The Mossad injected a board inside of the device that has explosive material that receives a code.
It’s very hard to detect it through any means. Even with any device or scanner,” the source told Reuters..
