In recent days, Lebanon has been struck by a series of explosions involving thousands of pagers and radio devices. Following the mass pager explosion on September 17, which resulted in 12 fatalities and approximately 2,800 injuries, another series of explosions involving two-way radios erupted across Lebanon, including in the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut and the Beqaa Valley, on the afternoon of September 18! According to information from the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health Emergency Operations Center, the latest explosions have so far caused 20 deaths and over 450 injuries.
The pagers involved in the September 17 explosion are suspected to have been produced by the Taiwanese manufacturer "Gold Apollo." However, this Taiwanese company has distanced itself by claiming that the products were not manufactured in Taiwan but by a company in Hungary. The Hungarian government has since refuted the claim, stating that the products were not made in Hungary. In the case of the September 18 explosions, the radio devices bore labels indicating "ICOM" and "Made in Japan." ICOM is a radio communication equipment company headquartered in Japan. The Osaka-based ICOM company has stated that it is investigating the details, including within its overseas distribution network. Yoshiki Enomoto, a director at Icom, said, "We cannot rule out the possibility that they are fake, but it's also possible that these are our IC-V82 model products." The company has added that although Icom has a business division in Europe, it is unclear how these products ended up in the Middle East.
Sources have reported that Hezbollah began shifting towards pagers and other low-tech communication devices earlier this year in an effort to evade Israeli surveillance of cell phones. The walkie-talkies that exploded on September 18 were acquired by Hezbollah approximately five months ago, similar to the timing of the pagers that exploded across Lebanon on September 17.
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