Explosive devices strike Lebanon again amid deadly pagers attack: Key details

Walkie-talkies and solar equipment exploded in Beirut and multiple parts of Lebanon on Wednesday in an apparent second wave of attacks.

At least 20 people were killed and another 450 were wounded, the Health Ministry said, in this apparent second attack.

The latest incident comes as Lebanon and Syria continue to reel from a previous sophisticated and coordinated attack in which thousands of pagers detonated in the hands of the militant group Hezbollah.

That attack occurred Tuesday, killing at least 12 people — including two children — and wounding thousands more.

RELATED: Exploding pagers kill at least 9 in suspected Israeli attack on Hezbollah

An American official said Israel briefed the U.S. on the operation — in which small amounts of explosive hidden in the pagers were detonated — on Tuesday after it was concluded. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the information publicly.

The Lebanese government and Iran-backed Hezbollah also blamed Israel for the deadly explosions, which targeted an extraordinary breadth of people and showed signs of being a long-planned operation. Details on how the attack was executed are largely uncertain and investigators have not immediately said how the pagers were detonated. The Israeli military has declined to comment.

Here's what we know so far.

Why were pagers used in the attack?

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah previously warned the group’s members not to carry cellphones, saying they could be used by Israel to track the group's movements. As a result, the organization uses pagers to communicate.

Pagers also run on a different wireless network than mobile phones, which makes them more resilient in times of emergency. And for a group like Hezbollah, the pagers provided a means to sidestep what’s believed to be intensive Israeli electronic surveillance on mobile phone networks in Lebanon.

Ambulances are being dispatched to the area in Beirut, Lebanon while security forces take precautions after at least eight people, including a child, were killed in a mass explosion of wireless communication devices known as pagers on September 17, 2

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Smart phones carry a higher risk for intercepted communications in contrast to pagers' simpler technology, explained Nicholas Reese, adjunct instructor at the Center for Global Affairs in New York University’s School of Professional Studies.

Where did the pagers come from?

Taiwanese company Gold Apollo said Wednesday it had authorized use of its brand on the AR-924 pager model and a Budapest, Hungary-based company called BAC Consulting KFT produced and sold the pagers. BAC appears to be a shell company.

Gold Apollo's chair, Hsu Ching-kuang, told journalists Wednesday that the firm has had a licensing agreement with BAC for the past three years. From the start of 2022 through August 2024, Gold Apollo has exported 260,000 sets of pagers — including more than 40,000 sets between January and August of this year, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs. The ministry said that it had no records of direct exports of Gold Apollo pagers to Lebanon.

How did the pagers explode?

Multiple theories emerged Tuesday around how the attack might have been carried out, but several experts who spoke with The Associated Press explained how the explosions were most likely the result of supply-chain interference.

Very small explosive devices may have been built into the pagers prior to their delivery to Hezbollah, and then all remotely triggered simultaneously, possibly with a radio signal, experts explained. That corroborates information shared from the U.S. official about small amounts of explosive being hidden in the pagers as part of an Israeli operation.

By the time of the attack, "the battery was probably half-explosive and half-actual battery," said Carlos Perez, director of security intelligence at TrustedSec.

How long did it take to plan the attack?

It would take a long time to plan an attack of this scale. The exact specifics are still unknown, but experts who spoke with the AP shared estimates ranging anywhere between several months to two years.

The sophistication of the attack suggests that the culprit has been collecting intelligence for a long time, Reese said. An attack of this caliber requires building the relationships needed to gain physical access to the pagers before they were sold; developing the technology that would be embedded in the devices; and developing sources who can confirm that the targets were carrying the pagers.