The mystery of Hezbollah’s exploding pagers deepens as Hungary says the devices that injured thousands in Lebanon were never in the country, despite claims by a Budapest gadget company

Hungary said today that a Budapest company linked to the Hezbollah pagers that were detonated in Lebanon yesterday never made the gadgets in the country – amid growing questions about how the explosives-packed devices ended up with the Middle Eastern group.

Government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said that BAC Consulting KFT “does not have any production facility” in the country and that the equipment used in production has never been located in Hungary.

“The authorities have confirmed that the company in question is a commercial intermediary and does not have a production or operational facility in Hungary,” Mr Kovacs told the X programme, adding that the case “does not pose a threat to national security”.

The New York Times reported earlier that Israel hid explosives in a series of Taiwan-made Gold Apollo pagers before they were imported to Lebanon, citing U.S. and other officials briefed on the operation.

However, this morning Gold Apollo executives stated that the company had only authorized its brand on the devices, and that their production and sale were handled by the Hungarian company BAC Consulting KFT.

Twelve people were killed and nearly 3,000 injured when pagers exploded in southern Lebanon yesterday afternoon. Hezbollah is understood to have imported the devices in recent months to replace mobile phones, fearing Israeli hacking.

Hezbollah activists were apparently caught off guard by the detonation of thousands of pagers on Tuesday.

Amid widespread panic, ambulances rushed to the southern suburbs of Beirut and hospitals were overwhelmed with patients.

Some lost their eyesight as a result of the attacks, while others had to undergo amputations.

Israel and its military have not yet commented on the explosions or taken responsibility for the attacks.

Lebanese authorities quickly blamed “Israeli aggression,” and Hezbollah vowed swift revenge — before carrying out its latest cross-border rocket attack this afternoon.

But it remains a mystery how the devices used by Hezbollah came to be equipped with explosives that can apparently be detonated remotely.

A security source told Reuters that up to three grams of explosives were hidden in the new pagers, which remained “undetected” by Hezbollah for months.

A senior Lebanese source said the devices were modified by the Israeli spy service “during the production stage”.

Mossad placed an explosive disc in the device that picks up the code.

“It’s very difficult to detect this by any means. Even with any device or scanner.”

The source added that the group ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwanese company Gold Apollo, but the order was quickly rejected by the company.

Gold Apollo CEO Hsu Ching-kuang told reporters on Wednesday that the company has had a licensing agreement with BAC for three years.

“Pursuant to the cooperation agreement, we authorize BAC to use our trademark to sell the products in designated regions, but BAC is solely responsible for the design and production of the products,” Gold Apollo said in a statement.

BAC’s parent company is owned by Cristiana Rosaria Bársony-Arcidiacono, who describes herself on her LinkedIn profile as a strategic advisor and business development specialist.

She denied any involvement with pagers, telling an American television station: “I don’t make pagers. I’m just a go-between. I think you misunderstood.”

According to legal documents seen by AFP, Barsony-Arcidiacono is believed to be the sole employee of the company founded in 2022, which also reports annual revenues of 210 million forints ($590,000) and profits of around 18 million forints.

On an archived version of its now-inaccessible website, the consultancy described itself as “change agents with a network of consultants,” while Barsony-Arcidiacono boasted of experience as a “strategic advisor” to international organizations.

The Times reported that about 3,000 pagers, mostly the AR924 model, were ordered from Gold Apollo.

“Our company only grants trademark authorization for the brand and is not involved in the design or production of this product,” Gold Apollo said.

The company declined to comment further, citing the ongoing investigation.

“We have assigned the case to the chief prosecutor of the national security team to actively investigate. Our office will clarify the facts of the case as soon as possible,” the Shilin District Prosecutor’s Office in Taipei said in a statement.

“If any violation of the law has occurred, it will be severely punished in accordance with the law,” the office added.

A source close to Hezbollah, who asked not to be named, previously told AFP that “the pagers that exploded were from a recent shipment of 1,000 devices imported by Hezbollah” that were most likely “sabotaged at the source”.

Hezbollah has only recently begun using pagers, fearing that cellphones might prove too easy to hack.

Reuters sources said the group began suspecting late last year that Israel was tracking their phones.

Senior Hezbollah executives stopped bringing phones to meetings. Supporters were told to bury their phones or lock them up.

“Switch it off, bury it, put it in an iron box and lock it up,” Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah told his supporters in a televised speech in February.

Do it for safety, to protect the blood and dignity of people.

“The collaborator (with the Israelis) is the cell phone in your hands, and in the hands of your wife and your children. That cell phone is the collaborator and the killer.”

Two sources “familiar with the group’s activities” told Reuters earlier this year that the pagers would be used as a low-tech means of communication to avoid Israeli surveillance.

The AR-924 pager commissioned by Hezbollah, advertised as “rugged,” contains a lithium-ion battery, according to specifications once posted on the Gold Apollo website before it was apparently dismantled.

Pagers are still used by emergency services because they are immune to the effects of mobile phones; modern systems have the same range, and satellite communications are often more effective than cellular networks.

Without a built-in GPS module, tracking their location is virtually impossible.

However, capturing the older technology before it was imported may have allowed Hezbollah’s opponents to equip themselves with explosives that could be detonated at a later date.

This afternoon, three people were killed and dozens injured when Hezbollah walkie-talkies exploded in Beirut – almost exactly 24 hours after exploding pagers maimed some 2,800 people in Lebanon and Syria.

Mobile devices used by the group exploded in the south of the country and in the southern suburbs of the capital, a security source told Reuters this afternoon.

At least one of the blasts occurred near the site of a funeral organized by Hezbollah for the victims of yesterday’s attack, Reuters reported.