"Hungary, Bulgaria, Taiwan and Japan: Following the exploding radio and pager trail" 20 September 2024

Israel hit Lebanon with two extraordinary attacks this week, detonating booby-trapped pagers and radios belonging to Hezbollah. On Tuesday afternoon, thousands of pagers exploded across the country, killing at least 14 people. On Wednesday, walkie-talkies blew up, including at the funerals of some of those who died the previous day, killing at least 20 people. Thousands more were wounded across both attacks...

As is usual in operations carried out abroad, Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its alleged involvement in the attacks...

Images of the attack aftermath on Tuesday showed branding for Gold Apollo, a Taiwanese electronics manufacturer, on the exploded pagers. 

Hsu [Gold Apollo's president and founder] said his company did not manufacture the pagers in question, and that they were made by BAC Consulting KFT, a Budapest-based company which had a licence to use its brand...

A Hungarian government spokesperson said earlier this week that the pagers were not manufactured in the country, and that BAC acted as an intermediary.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that BAC was in fact an Israeli front, according to three intelligence officers briefed on Israel’s operation....

Citing a US intelligence source, ABC News reported that Israel had been planning a “supply-chain interdiction” operation for at least 15 years...

Bulgaria has also garnered attention after local media reported on Thursday that Sofia-based company Norta Global Ltd was involved in selling the pagers... Norta’s founder, Rinson Jose, who is based in Norway, declined to respond to Reuter's request for comment earlier this week....

A Japanese manufacturer said it was launching an investigation after its name was on the hand-held radios that exploded on Thursday.  Icom, a telecommunications equipment manufacturer based in Osaka, said it had discontinued the device in question a decade ago.