A British-trained contractor has denied making the pagers that injured hundreds of Hezbollah fighters in a simultaneous explosion on Tuesday afternoon.
The devices, used by the Lebanese terrorist group to communicate securely, injured more than 3,000 people and killed at least 12 in a daring Israeli attack.
The Taiwanese company whose brand name appeared on the devices said on Wednesday that they were made in Hungary.
Gold Apollo said “the design and manufacturing of the products is the sole responsibility” of Budapest-based BAC Consulting KFT, which was allowed to use its brand under a three-year-old licensing agreement.
“We may not be a big company, but we are a responsible company,” said Hsu Ching-kuang, the chairman. “It’s very embarrassing.”
However, Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono, CEO of BAC Consulting, said, “I don’t make the pagers. I’m just the middleman. I think you’ve got it wrong” when NBC News reached her by phone.
Approximately three grams of explosives were allegedly placed in the AR-924 pagers during a sophisticated supply chain infiltration.
Israel detonated the explosions because it feared the sabotage plot had been exposed, the Axios news channel reported.
After calling a news conference at Gold Apollo’s headquarters in New Taipei, Mr. Ching-kuang told reporters that the company was a victim of the incident, that he planned to sue BAC and that he did not know how the pagers could be manipulated to explode.
He also claimed there had been problems with the company’s money transfers. “The transfers were very strange,” he said, adding that the payments had gone through the Middle East, without giving further details.
According to her LinkedIn page, Ms Barsony-Arcidiacono studied at LSE and worked for Unesco. “I have devoted myself with love to science and development,” she wrote on her page.
Between 2015 and 2017, she studied political science at LSE, after completing a degree in sustainable development at SOAS in London. She also recently worked with the European Commission as an “evaluation expert,” according to her LinkedIn profile.
On BAC Consulting’s website, which was inaccessible Wednesday morning, the company said it was involved in “connecting technology and innovation from Asia.” It added that the company helped telecommunications companies in Asia expand to reach new markets.
The company address was a two-storey residential building in Budapest. The company name was displayed on the glass door on an A4 sheet.
The Hungarian government, led by Viktor Orban, is a staunch supporter of Israel in its fight against Hamas.
His close ties with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu led to Israel’s Euro 2024 qualifying football matches being played in Hungary after UEFA suspended home games in the country over security concerns.
In February, Hungary blocked an official statement by EU foreign ministers calling on Israel not to attack Rafah. The message had been sent informally on behalf of the other 26 ministers.
Hezbollah and the Lebanese government have blamed Israel for the sophisticated remote attack, raising fears that Israel’s war against Hamas could escalate into a regional conflict.
The group used pagers to evade intensive Israeli surveillance of Lebanese mobile phone networks.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs said that from early 2022 to August this year, Gold Apollo exported 260,000 sets of pagers, including more than 40,000 sets between January and August this year.
The ministry said the pagers were exported mainly to European and American countries and that it had no records of direct exports of Gold Apollo pagers to Lebanon.
The AR-924 pager, billed as “rugged,” contains a rechargeable lithium battery, according to advertisements on Gold Apollo’s website, which appear to have been removed after the attack.
The pager can receive text messages of up to 100 characters and has a battery life of up to 85 days, which is vital in Lebanon, where power outages are frequent.
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