Israel had not only tampered with the Hezbollah paging devices that exploded on Tuesday, but manufactured them, the US claims The New York Times magazine and news channel ABC.
According to them, Israel managed to smuggle the equipment to Hezbollah using several front companies. One is BAC Consulting KFT, a company in the name of a mysterious Hungarian woman, but investigations have been launched in several countries.
Thousands of Hezbollah members’ pagers exploded in Lebanon on Tuesday. The next day, Hezbollah’s radio phones began to explode. In total, at least 37 people have died and almost 3,000 have been wounded.
Israel has not confirmed or denied its involvement in the explosions. However, numerous intelligence and defense sources have told the media that Israel was behind the blasts.
Israel is believed to have hidden explosives in the devices, which were activated by a text message code. According to the Lebanese sources of the news agency Reuters, the explosive was pentaerythritol tetranitratewhich is easily explosive.
Front companies and even years of planning
According to The New York Times, Israel was planning the bombing operation even before the leader of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah in February urged his organization to give up mobile phones and switch to using paging devices when communicating.
Hezbollah believed it was safer by switching to more rudimentary means of communication because Israel had used advanced technology in its operations.
According to a US source quoted by ABC, Israel has been planning to infiltrate Hezbollah’s supply chain for at least 15 years. An opportunity opened up for Israel when Hezbollah ordered 5,000 pagers.
An ABC source says Israeli intelligence officials were working under the cover of a layer of several front companies. The paging devices were manufactured by a legal company. At least some of the front companies were unaware of who they were actually working for.
Order from Taiwan
Extremist organization Hezbollah ordered the exploded AR-924 search devices from the Taiwanese company Gold Apollo. However, the company has said that it did not manufacture the devices, but that they were made under license by the Hungarian BAC Consulting KFT.
Director of Gold Apollo Hsu Ching-kuang says that the pagers received by Hezbollah are completely different from Gold Apollo’s own models and have a different microchip.
A representative of Hezbollah has told the AP news agency that the paging devices were a new model that the organization has not used before.
Taiwan has launched an investigation into the matter. According to the country’s government, none of the parts of the paging devices obtained by Hezbollah were made in Taiwan, says the British broadcasting company BBC.
But other lines of investigation have not revealed the manufacturer either.
The Hungarian “mystery woman” in an interview with a Finnish website
In Hungary, the paging equipment issue has also been investigated after Gold Apollo announced the Budapest-based BAC Consulting KFT, founded in 2022, as the supplier of the equipment.
The opposition has demanded an investigation into whether the Hungarian government knew about the Mossad operation and an arrest warrant for the CEO of BAC Consulting KFT From Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono.
Several media and news agencies have tried to reach Arcidiacono-Bàrson, but he avoids publicity. American news channel NBC succeeded however, to reach the managing director named in the media as a “mystery woman” by phone.
Bársony-Arcidiacono admitted that his company cooperates with Gold Apollo. However, he denied that he manufactures pagers and says he is only a broker.
In February, the Finnish website solved.fi published an article in which Arcidiacono-Bàrsony was presented as the “expert of the week”.
– If you have a challenge and want to think outside the box, bring it to me and we will solve it together, Arcidiacono-Bàrsony said in the article.
Solved says that it brings together “experts in sustainable solutions”. Solved removed the article from the internet after the explosions in Lebanon.
A representative of the Hungarian prime minister said on Wednesday on the messaging service X that the paging devices that exploded in Lebanon were never in Hungary.
Studies in Bulgaria and Norway as well
An investigation into whether the pager order’s tentacles extend into the country has also been launched in Bulgaria. The investigation was initiated by anonymous sources the claim that Sofia-based consulting company Norta Global would have brought the paging devices to Bulgaria and delivered them to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The owner of the company is Norwegian Rinson Jose. The company was founded a couple of years ago, just like the Hungarian company involved in the case, says the news channel CBS.
Norta Global’s website could not be accessed after the suspicion came to light.
The Norwegian police are also investigating the company’s connection to paging devices, according to news agency NTB, according to news agency STT.
However, Bulgaria’s security service Dans announced on Friday that no paging devices had been imported, exported or manufactured in Bulgaria. Neither Norta nor its Norwegian owner have bought or sold pagers in Bulgaria, at least legally, Dans said.
Exploded radio telephones of the old collection
Just a day after the paging devices exploded in Lebanon, explosions of Hezbollah’s walkie-talkies wreaked havoc.
The origin of radio telephones is also unclear. They appear to be phones from the Japanese company Icom. However, Icom denies that explosives could have been installed in its phones during manufacturing.
According to Icom, the exploding phones are a model that was discontinued a decade ago. Most of those still for sale are fakes, the company says according to the BBC. The production of their batteries has also been discontinued.
According to the company, it is not possible to confirm whether the exploded IC-V82s radio telephones were exported abroad by Icom directly or through an intermediary – if they were not fakes.