Components used in thousands of pagers that detonated on Tuesday in Lebanon 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 they were made by a Budapest-based company BAC which has a license to use its brand.
Israeli jets have targeted the towns of al-Mahmoudiya, Ksar al-Aroush and Birket Jabbour in the Jezzine area, Lebanon’s National News Agency reports.
Israel carried out dozens of air strikes across southern Lebanon, unnamed Lebanese security sources told Reuters, saying it was some of the most intense bombing since the start of the Gaza war in October.
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Hand-held radios used by Hezbollah detonated on Wednesday across Lebanon’s south in the country’s deadliest day since cross-border fighting erupted between Hezbollah and Israel nearly a year ago, stoking tensions after similar explosions of the group’s pagers the day before.
Lebanon’s health ministry said 20 people were killed and more than 450 injured on Wednesday 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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Nine people were killed and over 300 wounded Wednesday when walkie-talkies exploded across Lebanon, the health ministry said, a day after pagers used by Hezbollah blew up, killing 12 and wounding 2,800.
“The new wave of walkie-talkie explosions… killed nine people and wounded more than 300,” the ministry said in a statement.
Hundreds of people were wounded on Wednesday in fresh blasts involving communication devices used by Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, a security source said.
Many of the wounds were to the stomach and hands, the source said.
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The Lebanese armed group issued a defiant statement, saying the deadly pager explosions only increase its determination to press on with its operations against Israel, Al Jazeera reported.
“The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon extends its highest congratulations and warmest condolences to the families of the honourable martyrs who died yesterday, Tuesday, whether on the southern front in Blida and Majdal Silm, or the martyrs who died in the treacherous and widespread aggression through the bombing of communication devices,” the statement said.
“The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon will continue today, as in all the past days, its blessed operations to support Gaza, its people, and its resistance, and to defend Lebanon, its people, and its sovereignty. This path is continuous and separate from the difficult reckoning that the criminal enemy must await for its massacre on Tuesday that it committed against our people, our families, and our mujahideen in Lebanon. This is another reckoning that will come, God willing.”
It added: “What happened yesterday will increase our determination and resolve to continue on the path of jihad and resistance, and we are absolutely certain of God Almighty’s promise to the faithful, patient mujahideen of victory, God willing.”
Additionally, Kataib Hezbollah, a prominent Iran-backed armed group in Iraq, has offered support to Lebanon’s Hezbollah in the wake of Tuesday’s pager attacks, according to the Al Monitor news outlet.
“We … are putting all our capabilities in the hands of our brothers in Lebanon, and we are fully prepared to go with them until the end, sending fighters and equipment and support, whether on the technical or logistical level,” the group said in a statement.
