Taiwan has become involved in the investigation of the pager explosions used by Hezbollah, for which Israel is being accused of orchestrating.
Casualties from the Explosions
On Tuesday, at least nine people were killed, and nearly 3,000 were injured when pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded simultaneously. Images of the destroyed devices, analyzed by Reuters, showed designs and labels matching those manufactured by Taiwan-based company Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source informed Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from the company.
The Mysterious Fourth Party
While Gold Apollo denied manufacturing the devices that exploded in Lebanon, the company introduced a new party into the situation, aside from Hezbollah, Israel, and Taiwan.
On Wednesday, Gold Apollo stated that the exploded pagers were not their products but were produced by a Hungarian-based company, PAC, located in Budapest. The Taiwanese firm explained that it only licensed its brand and played no role in the design or manufacturing of the devices.
Hsu Cheng-Kuang, founder of Gold Apollo, told reporters, “The product is not ours. It only carries our brand.” He had earlier confirmed that the licensed company’s headquarters were in Europe but later declined to provide further details.
Hsu also mentioned he was unaware of how the pagers were rigged to explode.
Israeli Intelligence Involvement
A senior Lebanese security source and another source confirmed that Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad, had planted explosives inside the 5,000 pagers that Hezbollah had imported months earlier.
Sources familiar with Hezbollah’s operations told Reuters that the militant group began using these devices to prevent Israel from tracking their locations. Hezbollah announced that it is conducting a thorough security and scientific investigation to determine the cause of the explosions.
