The pagers that detonated in different parts of Lebanon had nothing to do with the Taiwanese company Gold Apollo, but were manufactured and developed by a European company, company CEO Xu Qingguang said.
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Earlier, Reuters, citing sources, reported that the Israeli intelligence service Mossad planted a small amount of explosives in five thousand Taiwan-made pagers ordered by the Lebanese Hezbollah movement. According to the agency’s source, the movement ordered pagers from the Taiwanese company Gold Apollo.
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According to Xu Qingguang, quoted by the Taiwanese news portal CTWANT, about three years ago Gold Apollo entered into a cooperation agreement with a European company. At first, the company was only involved in distributing Gold Apollo products, but later began independently developing AR-924 pagers used in explosions. The companies agreed that the pager developed by the European distributor would be sold under the Gold Apollo logo.
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“Both the development and production of the exploded pagers were carried out abroad, they have nothing to do with Taiwan,” Xu Qingguang said.
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On Tuesday, pagers detonated in different areas of Lebanon. The head of the Lebanese Ministry of Health, Firas Abyad, said that as a result of the incident, more than 4 thousand people were injured, 11 were killed.
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According to a number of media reports, pagers are used by members of the Hezbollah movement as a closed communication system that is least susceptible to hacking and eavesdropping. It is not yet known what caused the simultaneous detonation of dozens of devices. Hezbollah and the Lebanese authorities blamed Israel for the incident.
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It is reported, citing sources, that the operation to detonate pagers in Lebanon was approved during meetings between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his cabinet and security chiefs.
