Wednessday evening came another day of multiple explosions in Lebanon, killing about 9 persons and injured estimated 300 others as residents reported multiple communication devices, vehicle batteries, motor and scooter batteries, solar batteries, timer batteries, computers, mobile phones, shavers, lithium batteries exploding, just barely 24 hours, pagers explosions killed 12 persons and injured over 2,800 others with some currently in a critical condition in the hospital.

Wednesday explosions were reported in Beirut and other multiple parts of Lebanon including during a funeral ceremony where some of the victims of Tuesday attacks were being buried.

Videos posted online by residents showed fires broke out in homes and vehicles, with victims rushed to hospitals with severe injuries.

Hezbollah officials and state media reported Wednesday that walkie-talkies and even solar equipment detonated.

The Lebanon Health Ministry was earlier quoted to have said that one person died during the Wednesday explosions and over 100 others sustained injuries but the figures have since risen, according to local media.

Several blasts were heard at the funeral in Beirut for three Hezbollah members and a child killed by exploding pagers the day before, according to Associated Press journalists at the scene.

An AP photographer in the southern coastal city of Sidon reported a car and a mobile phone shop damaged after devices exploded inside of them.

Reuters also reported on Wednesday that: “Smoke billows out of a mobile phone shop in Sidon after hand-held radios used by Hezbollah detonated.
 
Lebanon’s south and in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a security source and a witness said. 

The explosions occurred a day after pagers used by Hezbollah blew up, killing at least 12 and injuring thousands. Israel’s Iron Dome also intercepted missiles on the second day of explosions in Lebanon.

There was no comment from Israel on the walkie-talkie explosions. Israel’s Mossad spy agency planted explosives in Hezbollah’s Taiwan-made pagers the day before, sources tell Reuters”.

We had reported that Gold Apollo has denied being the producer of the pager telecommunication device reportedly used by Hezbollah members in recent time to evade Israeli armed forces tracking their locations which on Tuesday appeared to have been rigged in highly populated areas in Lebanon causing explosions as holders of the pagers go into public places doing their normal daily businesses.

Health Ministry in Lebanon said on Wednesday that a total of 12 persons have been confirmed dead while 2,800 have been in the hospitals across Lebanon with sustained injuries from the Tuesday multiple pagers explosions across Beirut.

Taiwan’s Gold Apollo said on Wednesday that BAC Consulting KFT based in Budapest has a license to use its brand and made the model of pagers used in the detonations in Lebanon a day earlier.

According to AFP report, “Regarding the AR-924 pager model mentioned in the recent media reports, we clarify that this model is produced and sold by BAC,” Gold Apollo said in a statement as he met with journalists at his office in Taiwan.

Hsu said the pagers used in the explosion were made by a company in Europe that had the right to use the Taiwanese firm’s brand.

Reuters reported the Wednesday meeting with Journalists that the Taiwanese pager firm, Gold Apollo said it had only licensed out its brand to the company and was not involved in the production of the devices.

“According to a senior Lebanese security source and another source, explosives inside the devices were planted by Israel’s Mossad spy agency.

Images of destroyed pagers analysed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo.

“The product was not ours. It was only that it had our brand on it,” Gold Apollo founder and president, Hsu Ching-kuang, told reporters at the company’s offices in the northern Taiwanese city of New Taipei on Wednesday.

The company said in a statement that the AR-924 model was produced and sold by BAC.

Gold Apollo authorised “BAC to use our brand trademark for product sales in specific regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are entirely handled by BAC,” the statement said.

Reuters calls and emails to BAC on Wednesday morning were not answered.
Hsu said earlier there had been problems with remittances from the firm.

“The remittance was very strange,” he said, adding that payments had come through the Middle East. He did not elaborate further.

Hezbollah fighters began using pagers in the belief they would be able to evade Israeli tracking of their locations, two sources familiar with the group’s operations told Reuters this year.

Hsu said he did not know how the pagers could have been rigged to explode.
While Hsu was meeting with reporters, police officials arrived at the company. Officials from Taiwan’s economy ministry also visited Gold Apollo.

The ministry said in a statement that there was no record of direct pager exports from Taiwan to Lebanon.

Hsu also said Gold Apollo was a victim of the incident and planned to sue the licensee. “We may not be a large company but we are a responsible one,” he said. “This is very embarrassing”, according to Reuters on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the exploded pagers killed 12 people in Lebanon, including two children, the country’s health minister said on Wednesday, updating the toll a day after the blasts blamed on Israel.

Hundreds of the wireless devices exploded simultaneously across Lebanon on Tuesday, hours after Israel said it was broadening the aims of the Gaza war to include its fight against Hezbollah.

Israel has yet to comment on the unprecedented attacks.

On Wednesday, Lebanese Health Minister, Firass Abiad said 12 people were killed and between 2,750 and 2,800 others were wounded, revising the toll up from nine dead.

“After checking with all the hospitals”, the toll was revised to “12 dead including two children”, Abiad told a news conference.

The dead included a girl and a boy as well as four health workers from private hospitals in Beirut’s southern suburbs who had pagers, he said.

Abiad said that “the attack was very big” with about 2,800 wounded people pouring into Lebanese hospitals “within half an hour”.

The pagers went off in the Iran-backed Hezbollah group’s main strongholds of southern Beirut and Lebanon’s east and south.

Some cases in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley were transferred to Syria, while other cases would be evacuated to Iran, he added.

About 750 wounded people were in the south, around 150 were in the Bekaa Valley and some 1,850 were in Beirut and its southern suburbs, he said.

“A little less than 300 patients are in critical condition” with some suffering from face injuries and brain haemorrhaging, Abiad said.

“The wounded who arrived at the emergency room were not all young men. We saw children and elderly people,” Abiad said, according to AFP report.

The Lebanese-based militant group Hezbollah has vowed to take revenge after blaming Israel for detonating pagers on Tuesday that killed 12 people and wounded 2,800 others, including many of the militant group’s fighters and Iran’s envoy to Beirut.

Reuters reports that the country’s Information Minister Ziad Makary has condemned the destruction of the pagers – used by Hezbollah and others in Lebanon to communicate.

Egypt Today Magazine reported that Egypt has restated its unwavering keenness on Lebanon’s security and stability and the non-violation of its sovereignty by any external party following the tragic detonation of pager devices across Lebanon on Tuesday.

“Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Badr Abdelatty reached out to Lebanon’s Prime Minister, Najib Mikati and Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdallah Bou Habib, conveying Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s reaffirmation of this support.

Sisi has directed Abdelatty to promptly engage with Lebanese officials, affirm full support to Lebanon, and offer the provision of all possible forms of assistance in the wake of this tragic incident, read a statement by the Egyptian foreign ministry.

In his discussions, Abdelatty reiterated a caution against the escalating regional tensions and warned against pushing the region into an all-out war.

He highlighted the alarming and swift developments unfolding in southern Lebanon as ominous signs that the region stands on the brink of a perilous turning point due to irresponsible and reckless unilateral actions, read the statement.

The foreign minister underscored the critical importance of averting further escalation through an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, a cessation of Israeli assaults in the West Bank, and a swift deal ensuring the release of captives and prisoners, alongside unimpeded access to humanitarian and medical aid in Gaza.

CNN revealed that the assault was a coordinated effort between Israel’s intelligence service, the Mossad, and the Israeli military.

Israel hid explosives in the Gold Apollo pagers before they were imported to Lebanon, the New York Times reported, citing American and other officials briefed on the operation. The Israeli intelligence added a switch to the device for remote detonation”, Egypt Today Magazine reported.

France 24 few hours ago also reported that the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah alSisi and other Egyptian officials on Wednesday in his 10th trip to the Middle east since the war in Gaza began nearly one year ago.

“Blinken is expected to hold a press conference with Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, but will not be visiting Israel in this round of diplomacy.

The top US diplomat’s visit comes as the region remains on high alert, particularly after militant group Hezbollah promised to retaliate against Israel, accusing it of detonating pagers across Lebanon on Tuesday”, France 24 reported.

In another development, the Lebanese Minister of Education has directed the closure of all public and private schools, including universities on Wednesday in condemnation for a mass pager attack that killed 12 persons and wounded 2,800 others across Lebanon.

The Minister, Abbas al Halabi said schools and universities across Lebanon will close to condemn “the criminal act committed by the Israeli enemy against Lebanese citizens”.

Most of the victims suffered injuries to the hand, while some were also injured in the face, abdomen and the eyes, according to the health ministry.