Is Israel’s Mossad behind Hezbollah pager blasts in Lebanon? What Taiwan’s Gold Apollo said

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

The detonations started around 3:30pm (1230 GMT) in the southern suburbs of Beirut known as Dahiyeh and the eastern Bekaa valley – strongholds of the anti-Israel militant group Hezbollah.

They lasted around an hour, with news agency Reuters witnesses and residents of Dahiyeh saying they could still hear explosions at 4:30pm.

American and other officials told New York Times that Israel executed the operation targeting Hezbollah by concealing explosives inside Taiwanese-made pagers imported into Lebanon.

Hezbollah had ordered these pagers from Gold Apollo in Taiwan, the NYT report claimed.

Gold Apollo founder Hsu Ching-Kuang said the company did not make the pagers that were used in the detonations in Lebanon.

Hezbollah promised to retaliate against Israel after accusing it of detonating pagers.

Lebanese information minister Ziad Makary condemned the late-afternoon detonation of the pagers – handheld devices that Hezbollah and others in Lebanon use to send messages – as an “Israeli aggression”. Hezbollah said Israel would receive “its fair punishment” for the blasts.

Hezbollah pager blasts in Lebanon: 10 updates

The NYT report claimed that the explosives, about one to two ounces, were hidden near the batteries and could be remotely detonated.

At 3:30 pm, the pagers, appearing to receive a message from Hezbollah leadership, exploded, killing at least nine people and injuring over 2,800.

Israel has not confirmed responsibility, while Hezbollah blamed the country but shared limited details. Experts suggested the attack exploited Hezbollah’s reduced reliance on cellphones.

News agency Reuters, citing a senior Lebanese security source and another unnamed source, claimed that Israel’s Mossad spy agency planted a small amount of explosives inside 5,000 Taiwan-made pagers ordered by Lebanese group Hezbollah months before Tuesday’s detonations.

The Reuters also claimed that said the group had ordered pagers made by Gold Apollo, which several sources say were brought into the country earlier this year. The Lebanese source, Reuters reported, identified a photograph of the model of the pager, an AP924.

Images of destroyed pagers analysed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo, a Taiwan-based pager manufacturer.

Iran-backed Hezbollah said it was carrying out a “security and scientific investigation” into the causes of the blasts and said Israel would receive “its fair punishment”.

Diplomatic and security sources speculated that the explosions could have been caused by the devices’ batteries detonating, possibly through overheating.

Earlier this year, Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah strictly limited the use of cellphones, which he saw as increasingly vulnerable to Israeli surveillance, NYT reported citing some of the officials and security experts.

Hezbollah was reeling from the attack, which left fighters and others bloodied, hospitalised or dead. One Hezbollah official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the detonation was the group’s “biggest security breach” since the Gaza conflict between Israel and Hezbollah ally Hamas erupted on October 7.