The company behind the searchers: Embarrassing

 

The Pager Explosions in Lebanon 2024
Data: All pagers came from the same Taiwanese company

Give Zangana

Updated 12.07 | Published 08.39

The coordinated pager attack in Lebanon on Tuesday has shaken the country and escalated the security situation in the region.

According to information to the New York Times, the search engines had been imported from one and the same dealer - the company Gold Apollo in Taiwan.

- The product was not ours. It just had our brand on it,” company founder Hsu Ching-Kuang said in a statement to Reuters.

Quick version

• A coordinated attack in Lebanon using exploding pagers imported from Taiwan killed at least nine people and injured nearly 3,000. Israel is suspected of being behind it, according to the New York Times.
• The pagers were falsely branded with Gold Apollo's brand, but company founder Hsu Ching-Kuang denies their involvement, saying this is an embarrassing situation for the company.
• Explosive pagers were distributed to Hezbollah members and allies in Iran and Syria. A fake message, purported to come from Hezbollah leaders, triggered the explosions. No Swedes are reported injured.

On Tuesday afternoon, explosions began simultaneously in different places in Lebanon.

There were a large number of pagers that exploded and at least nine people died while almost 3,000 people were injured.

Several theories about what happened are circulating and Israel is suspected, according to information to the New York Times, of being behind the attack.

According to the information, the seekers were purchased by one and the same company in Taiwan - Gold Apollo - and had been loaded with explosives.

Hsu Ching-Kuang, Gold Apollo's founder. Photo: Ann Wang / Reuters

Owner: "Not our product"

The Wired newspaper, citing social media, reports that the search engines were of the Gold Apollo AP-900 model, which is powered by AAA batteries, or the Gold Apollo AR-924, which is powered by lithium batteries.

Most were of the AP-924 model, but three other versions were also included in the shipment.

However, the owner of the company Gold Apollo said in a statement on Wednesday that it did not manufacture the pagers used in the explosion. They instead refer to the company BAC in Hungary that manufactured the pagers, reports Time Magazine.

Now Gold Apollo intends to take legal action against the company and founder Hsu Ching-Kuang maintains that it is a responsible company.

- This is very embarrassing, he says.

           

           

          The model Gold Apollo-AR-924.
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Got a fake message

According to the New York Times, the pagers must have been distributed to Hezbollah members throughout Lebanon. Some of them are said to have also reached Hezbollah allies in Iran and Syria.

The New York Times also writes that all pagers received a fake message that appeared to come from Hezbollah's leader but which instead triggered the detonation with some delay.

Thousands of Swedes are said to be in Lebanon, but no injured Swedes have been reported at the moment.

Photo: Bassam Masri / AP

FACTS

This is a pager

A pager is a wireless means of communication that receives and displays both number and text messages. They can vibrate and ring.

There are both one-way pagers and two-way pagers - where you can also answer messages.

The pagers are not dependent on a Wi-Fi connection or mobile network. For this reason, the search engines have mostly been used in hospitals and by emergency personnel.

The pagers receive signals from radio frequencies. These were popular in the late 90s and early 2000s before the advent of mobile phones.

During the war between Israel and Gaza, Hezbollah has frequently used pagers to avoid being located by Israel, writes the BBC.

Sources: CNN, Financial Express and BBC