ABC News: Pager Bomb Plot 15 Years in The Making

By Staff, Agencies

A US intelligence source has told ABC News, that “Israeli” intelligence services have been contemplating an operation along the lines of this week’s mass explosions of electronic devices in Lebanon for at least 15 years.

Thousands of people were injured in Lebanon by a series of blasts linked to pagers, walkie-talkies, and other equipment.

Speaking to ABC News, a US source called it a “supply chain interdiction,” adding that the CIA has long been reluctant to employ similar tactics due to the risk of collateral damage. In Lebanon, children were among some two-dozen people martyred in the attack, which also left many victims mutilated.

The New York Times previously reported that the supply of sabotaged devices started in the summer of 2023, citing multiple officials familiar with the operation.

The ABC News report suggested that BAC Consulting, a Hungarian-based firm subcontracted by Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Gold Apollo to produce pagers, was an “Israeli” front.

The devices were never in Hungary and BAC was “a trading intermediary, with no manufacturing or operational site” in the country, a government spokesperson told the outlet.

The administration of Taiwan has itself from the wave of violence in Lebanon.

“The components are [mainly] low-end IC [integrated circuits] and batteries,” Economy Minister Kuo Jyh-huei told reporters on Friday, as quoted by Reuters. “I can say with certainty they were not made in Taiwan.”

Beirut and the Hezbollah leadership have blamed “Israel” for the incident and have declared that Lebanon is now in a state of war with its neighbor.