Tons of of pagers belonging to the armed group Hezbollah exploded on Tuesday in Lebanon, killing not less than 12 people and wounding about 2,750. Some pagers belonging to Hezbollah additionally exploded in Syria, resulting in some accidents.
Lebanon, Hezbollah and the group’s allies have all blamed Israel. However what actually occurred? Many analysts imagine the reply may lie in how Hezbollah bought the pagers within the first place — as a result of which may maintain clues as to whether the units had been tampered with to facilitate the explosions.
Right here’s what we all know and what consultants imagine may need occurred:
About 3:30pm (12:30 GMT), lots of of pagers throughout Lebanon began exploding.
Hezbollah launched an announcement on Tuesday saying two of its fighters and a woman had been killed as “pagers belonging to staff of varied Hezbollah items and establishments exploded”.
The Iran-backed group attributed the pager blasts to Israel, which has been concerned in tit-for-tat assaults with Hezbollah throughout the Lebanon-Israel border because the starting of Israel’s struggle on Gaza.
Israel’s navy has refused to touch upon the explosions. Hezbollah has promised retaliation in opposition to Israel.
A Lebanese safety supply and one other supply advised the Reuters information company that the Mossad, Israel’s spy company, planted explosives in 5,000 pagers that Hezbollah had ordered months earlier than the explosions. The sources mentioned a code was concurrently despatched to three,000 of the pagers, triggering the explosions.
Whereas the precise mechanism used for the pager explosions is unclear for the time being, some consultants speculate that the radio system that the pagers depend on was hacked, presumably by means of a doctored code. The batteries of the pagers might have been triggered to overheat, resulting in a course of known as thermal runaway, which in flip brought on the pager batteries to blow up.
Some analysts, together with Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former British military officer and chemical weapons knowledgeable, have speculated that the pagers may have been tampered with alongside the provision chain and wired to blow up on command.
However Brussels-based navy and political analyst Elijah Magnier advised Al Jazeera his sources near the bottom in Lebanon had shared particulars from preliminary investigations carried out by Hezbollah on pagers that didn’t explode.
These investigations counsel that Israel positioned 1 to three grammes (0.04 to 0.11oz) of pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), a strong explosive, in every machine.
Lebanon faces a spread of sanctions from the US, European Union and their Western companions. As well as, the US, United Kingdom and their allies, corresponding to Japan, listing Hezbollah amongst “terrorist” organisations.
That signifies that firms each registered in these domains or buying and selling with these nations are cautious of direct transactions, particularly in know-how, with Hezbollah — and sometimes with Lebanon in any respect.
On this case, Magnier mentioned, the pagers procured by Hezbollah had been with a 3rd get together and so they sat at a port for 3 months, awaiting clearances, earlier than they had been lastly moved to the Lebanese group.
Hezbollah suspects that it was throughout these three months that Israel managed to plant explosives within the units, the navy analyst mentioned.
The rechargeable pagers had been confiscated and held for a while earlier than being launched and shipped to #Lebanon. There, #Israel tempered the pagers and positioned the 1-3 gram explosive machine in every pager.
— Elijah J. Magnier 🇪🇺 (@ejmalrai) September 17, 2024
He added that Hezbollah’s investigation to this point reveals that metallic balls had been positioned across the pager batteries, permitting the explosive power to propel metallic fragments outward, “considerably growing the lethality of the blast”. He added that this was additionally performed throughout the three months when the cargo was on maintain.
However the place had been the pagers made — and when?
Taiwan or Hungary?
The trademark of Taiwan pager producer Gold Apollo has been recognized on the stays of the exploded pagers, which seem to belong to the corporate’s AR-924 mannequin.
On Wednesday, the corporate launched an announcement denying that it had manufactured Hezbollah’s pagers and saying it was solely its emblem that was on the units.
As an alternative, the pagers had been constructed by a Hungarian firm known as BAC by means of a licensing deal, the Taiwan agency mentioned.
“The design and manufacturing of the merchandise are completely dealt with by BAC,” Gold Apollo mentioned in an announcement. “We solely present model trademark authorisation and haven’t any involvement within the design manufacturing of this product.” BAC has not commented to this point.
The proof to this point means that Hezbollah acquired the pagers round February when the group’s chief, Hassan Nasrallah, ordered members to cease utilizing cellphones as a result of they may very well be simply intercepted and monitored by Israeli intelligence.
What can we learn about BAC?
BAC Consulting relies in Hungary’s capital, Budapest.
Reuters reported that the said handle for BAC is a peach-coloured constructing in a residential space. Whereas the corporate’s identify is posted there on an A4 sheet of paper, an nameless supply current on the constructing advised the information company the corporate doesn’t have a bodily presence on the constructing regardless of being registered there.
Based on LinkedIn, BAC’s CEO is Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono, whose profile says she has labored for varied organisations, together with UNESCO.
Her profile says: “We provide in-depth consulting guiding our consumer’s journey towards innovation, sustainability, and fairness whereas making certain connection, and authenticity. Our most important companies are enterprise improvement, administration consultancy, technique and partnership planning.”
Al Jazeera reached out to BAC however didn’t obtain a response.
