Israel-Lebanon latest: Israel strikes southern Lebanon as Hezbollah says device blasts are ‘act of war’

Taiwan’s foreign minister Lin Chia-lung denied meeting with Israel’s de facto ambassador to discuss the Lebanon attacks.

Speaking to reporters at parliament, he said: “We are asking our missions abroad to raise their security awareness and will exchange relevant information with other countries.”

Meanwhile, Taiwanese authorities are investigating potential links between local tech firm Gold Apollo and the devices used.

The Shilin District Prosecutors Office is searching four locations of the firm in Taiwan. “We’ll seek to determine if there was any possible involvement of these Taiwanese companies as soon as possible, to ensure the safety of the country and its people,” the spokesperson said.

Components used in thousands of pagers that detonated on Tuesday in Lebanon in a deadly blow to Hezbollah were not made in Taiwan, Taiwan’s economy minister said on Friday.

Taiwan-based Gold Apollo said this week it did not manufacture the devices used in the attack, and that Budapest-based company BAC to which the pagers were traced has a license to use its brand.

It was not clear how or when the pagers were weaponised so they could be remotely detonated. The same applied to the hundreds of hand-held radios used by Hezbollah that exploded on Wednesday in a second wave of attacks.

“The components are (mainly) low-end IC (integrated circuits) and batteries,” Taiwan’s economy minister Kuo Jyh-huei told reporters.

When he was pressed on whether the parts in the pagers that exploded were made in Taiwan, he said, “I can say with certainty they were not made in Taiwan,” adding the case is being investigated by judicial authorities.

The Japanese maker of the brand of walkie-talkies thought to have exploded in Lebanon has denied making the detonating devices – but has given its take on what could have been used.

Hand-held radios used by armed group Hezbollah detonated across Lebanon’s south on Wednesday, stoking tensions after similar explosions of pagers the day before.

Lebanon’s health ministry said 20 people were killed and more than 450 injured on the second attack in Beirut’s suburbs and the Bekaa Valley, while the death toll from Tuesday’s explosions rose to 12, including two children, with nearly 3,000 injured.

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Israel notified US defence secretary Lloyd Austin of a planned military operation in Lebanon on Tuesday, but provided no details, according to US officials. Hours later, thousands of pagers belonging to Hezbollah militants mysteriously exploded, killing at least 37 people, including two children, and injuring around 3,000.

The pager explosions were part of a coordinated attack on Hezbollah members, many of whom were seriously wounded. The devices, rigged with small amounts of explosives, detonated in several areas with strong Hezbollah presence, including Beirut’s Dahieh suburb, southern Lebanon, and the Beqaa Valley near the Syrian border.

Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant and Austin had multiple conversations throughout the week, fueling concerns of escalating tensions between Israel and Hezbollah. The US acknowledged being briefed after the initial attack but claimed surprise at the specifics of the operations. Notably, the US denied receiving advance warning of the second wave of attacks targeting walkie-talkie radios.

Taipei prosecutors grilled Gold Apollo president Hsu Ching-kuang late on Thursday over links to thousands of pagers used in blasts targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Mr Hsu denied manufacturing the devices, blaming Budapest-based BAC, which licenses Gold Apollo’s brand. However, destroyed pagers analysed by Reuters bore stickers and formatting consistent with Gold Apollo products.

Mr Hsu declined comment as he left the prosecutors’ office. A second individual, Teresa Wu of Apollo Systems Ltd, was also questioned. Mr Hsu said this week a person called Ms Teresa had been one of his contacts for the deal with Hungary-based firm BAC.

Company records show Apollo Systems was set up by Wu in April this year. It was not immediately clear what the relationship is between her company and BAC.

Taiwan’s government has said it is investigating what happened and police have made several visits to Hsu’s company, in a small, unassuming office in Taipei’s next door city of New Taipei.

The exploding device attacks in the Lebanon are “utterly despicable and extraordinarily dangerous”, the Taoiseach has said.

Simon Harris said the safety of Irish troops currently based in the country on UN missions was an “absolute priority” for the Government.

“There are basic rules around engagement, even in conflict, and at the very core is the idea that you don’t send explosive devices in among civilian populations and to watch explosions taking place in supermarkets,” he said.

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In Thursday’s late operation, Israel launched dozens of bombs across southern Lebanon, three Lebanese security sources said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Israeli radio stations reported that dozens of fighter jets struck Hezbollah targets including around 100 rocket launchers.

Israel’s military did not confirm the shelling but said earlier it had struck dozens of Hezbollah targets, including rocket launchers and weapon depots in southern Lebanon.

In a TV address on Thursday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the device explosions on Tuesday and Wednesday “crossed all red lines”.

“The enemy went beyond all controls, laws and morals,” he said, adding the attacks “could be considered war crimes or a declaration of war.”

The small plastic box that beeped and flashed numbers was a lifeline to Laurie Dove in 1993. Pregnant with her first baby in a house beyond any town in rural Kansas, Dove used the little black device to keep in touch with her husband as he delivered medical supplies. He carried one too. They had a code.

“If I really needed something I would text ‘9-1-1.’ That meant anything from, ‘I’m going to labor right now’ to ‘I really need to get ahold of you,’” she recalls. “It was our version of texting. I was as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rockers. It was important.”

Beepers and all they symbolized — connection to each other or, in the 1980s, to drugs — went the way of answering machines decades ago when smartphones wiped them from popular culture. They resurfaced in tragic form Tuesday when thousands of sabotaged pagers exploded simultaneously in Lebanon, killing at least a dozen people and injuring thousands in a mysterious, multi-day attack as Israel declared a new phase of its war on Hezbollah.

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As a global propaganda coup for the Israeli security services, the pager attacks on Hezbollah members in Lebanon could scarcely be surpassed.

What kind of a mind, one wonders, dreams up such a macabre lark as this, an “exploding cigar” practical joke on a grand scale?

The sheer audacity of it was very much in the Israeli tradition, and it made some points rather forcefully. It proved that the Israelis could intercept Hezbollah supply lines, and with such ease that they could find the time to fit a few grams of military-grade explosives to each device, disguised as an electronic component.

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The Foreign Secretary has expressed concern about “rising tensions and civilian casualties” in Lebanon amid ongoing hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.

Israel is reported to have carried out air strikes on southern Lebanon on Thursday afternoon as Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed to retaliate following this week’s attacks that targeted Lebanese militants with exploding pagers.

In a televised speech, Mr Nasrallah said the attacks, widely believed to have been carried out by Israel, had been a “severe blow” and claimed they had killed dozens, including children, and wounded thousands.

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