BEIRUT, September 20. /TASS/. Hezbollah continued handing out Gold Apollo pagers to its members several hours before these devices detonated, despite the fact that they had not been checked for potential threats, Reuters said, citing anonymous sources from Hezbollah security service.
According to the sources, a Hezbollah member received his device on September 16 and it exploded on the following day while still in its box. Another senior Hezbollah official received a pager several days before it exploded wounding his subordinate. Hezbollah was sure the devices were safe.
The sources told Reuters that the Shiite movement did not have any specific suspicions about these pagers and their "checks had been part of a routine 'sweep' of its equipment, including communications devices, to find any indications that they were laced with explosives or surveillance mechanisms." Following the mass pager detonation on Tuesday, Hezbollah launched a thorough check of all electronic devices but failed to complete it before the second wave of blasts on Wednesday, when its walkie-talkies exploded. Israel hurried to stage the second wave of detonations because it was afraid that Hezbollah would soon find explosives in its hand-held radios, the agency cited a source.
According to one of the Hezbollah security sources, Hezbollah managed to thwart Israel’s previous operations against the movement’s imported electronic devices. "There are several electronic issues that we were able to discover - but not the pagers," the source told Reuters. "They tricked us, hats off to the enemy."
Multiple explosions of communication devices occurred in Lebanon on September 17 and 18. On the first day, a large number of pagers blew up almost simultaneously in various regions of Lebanon. According to the country’s Health Ministry, 12 people, including two children, were killed, and 2,800 more were hospitalized. On the following day, a new wave of blasts swept across Lebanon. This time, walkie-talkies, phones, fingerprint scanners, as well as devices operating on solar and lithium-ion batteries exploded. At least 25 were killed and 608 were injured in the new attack.
Earlier, the Hungarian portal Telex claimed that the pagers that exploded in Lebanon may have been purchased from the Taiwanese company Gold Apollo by the Bulgarian firm Norta Global Ltd, rather than the Hungarian company BAC Consulting. According to the report, BAC Consulting, registered in Budapest, acted only as an intermediary, facilitating the agreement with the Taiwanese firm, while the Sofia-based Norta Global Ltd was directly involved in procuring the pagers. Telex alleges that Norta Global Ltd "organized the delivery and sold" the pagers to Hezbollah. Later, Bulgaria’s State National Security Agency said in response to statements made by Hungarian media that the Bulgarian firm was not involved. Taiwan’s authorities also denied any involvement of its companies.
Lebanon and Hezbollah blamed the blasts on Israel, slamming its actions as aggression. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel of "fair retaliation."