Explosive pagers used by Hezbollah had been modified by Israel ‘at production level’, Reuters told by Lebanese security sources
Israel’s Mossad spy agency planted a small amount of explosives inside thousands of pagers ordered by Hezbollah months before the devices exploded, a Lebanese security source has told the Reuters news agency.
The senior source said the militant group had ordered 5,000 beepers which several other sources said were brought into Lebanon in the spring.
The same source claimed that the devices had been modified by Israel’s spy service “at the production level”.
A second security source told Reuters that up to 3g of explosives were hidden in the new pagers that went “undetected” by Hezbollah for months.
The remains of what is claimed to be one of the exploding pagers
Middle East latest: ‘Israel planted explosives in pagers’
Details from the Reuters report are similar to one by the New York Times, which cited American and other officials.
Images of the destroyed devices analysed by Reuters showed a format and stickers that were consistent with the AR-924 model of pagers with Gold Apollo branding – a Taiwan-based company.
The firm’s founder Hsu Ching-Kuang said the devices were actually made under licence in Europe by a firm called BAC, using the Gold Apollo name.
In a statement given to Sky News in Taiwan, the company said: “Apollo Gold Corporation has established a long-term private label authorisation and regional agency cooperation with BAC.
“According to the agreement, we authorise BAC to use our brand trademark for production sales in specific regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are entirely handled by BAC.”
Apollo Gold declined to give further details of the European firm.
The model, like other pagers, wirelessly receives and displays text messages but cannot make telephone calls.
People gather outside American University of Beirut Medical Center. Pic: Reuters
Nine people were killed and thousands seriously injured in Tuesday’s explosions in different parts of Lebanon, the country’s health minister said.
Firas Abiad said 200 of the 2,750 wounded were in a critical condition.
Lebanese officials laid the blame on “Israeli aggression”, while Hezbollah promised to retaliate insisting Israel would receive “its fair punishment” for the blasts.
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‘Around 2,750’ injured in pager blasts
The Israeli military, which has been engaged in cross-border fighting with Hezbollah since the start of the war in Gaza in October last year, has refused to respond to questions about the detonations.
Experts broadly agree that the blasts do not look like a typical lithium battery fire.
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Keren Elazari, a hacker and security researcher at Tel Aviv University, told Sky News: “There is no remote hacking capability that could generate that kind of kinetic explosion… some sort of a physical explosive component was probably part of the equation.”
Bomb disposal expert and former British army officer Chris Hunter added that his initial theory – based on injuries – suggests the blasts are “consistent with one to two ounces of high explosive”.
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Ambulances at scene of pagers explosion
“We’ve seen this sort of similar MO [particular method] with mobile devices before,” he said, pointing to the assassination of Hamas master bomb maker Yahya Ayyash whose mobile phone had been laced with a small amount of explosives.
Hezbollah fighters would have considered pagers a lo-fi, harder to infiltrate alternative to mobile phones, according to Sky News’s Middle East correspondent Alistair Bunkall.
It comes after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah previously warned the group’s members in February not to carry mobile phones because Israel could use them to track their movements.
Donald Trump has threatened Russia with more sanctions after a series of deadly strikes across Ukraine, as he said of Vladimir Putin: “What the hell happened to him?”
The US president appeared aghast at the conduct of his counterpart in the Kremlin after drone and missile attacks in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities left 12 people dead and dozens more injured.
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Speaking to reporters at an airport in New Jersey ahead of a flight back to Washington, Mr Trump said: “I’m not happy with Putin. I don’t know what’s wrong with him.”
“He’s killing a lot of people,” he added. “I’m not happy about that.”
Mr Trump – who said he’s “always gotten along with” Mr Putin – told reporters he would consider more sanctions against Moscow.
“He’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all,” he said.
Ukraine said the barrage of strikes overnight into Sunday was the biggest aerial attack of the war so far, with 367 drones and missiles fired by Russian forces.
It came despite Mr Trump repeatedly talking up the chances of a peace agreement. He even spoke to Mr Putin on the phone for two hours last week.
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Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukraine is ready to sign a ceasefire deal, and suggested Russia isn’t serious about signing one.
In a statement after the latest attacks on his country, he urged the US and other national leaders to increase the pressure on Mr Putin, saying silence “only encourages” him.
Mr Trump’s envoy for the country, Keith Kellogg, later demanded a ceasefire, describing the Russian attacks as “shameful”.
Three children were among those killed in the attacks, explosions shaking the cities of Kyiv, Odesa, and Mykolaiv.
Ukrainian siblings Tamara, 12, Stanislav, eight, and Roman, 17, were killed in Russian airstrikes. Pic: X/@Mariana_Betsa
Before the onslaught, Russia said it had faced a Ukrainian drone attack on Sunday. It said around 100 were intercepted and destroyed near Moscow and in central and southern regions.
The violence has escalated despite Russia and Ukraine completing the exchange of 1,000 prisoners each over the past three days.
Donald Trump says he will delay the imposition of 50% tariffs on goods entering the United States from the European Union until July, as the two sides attempt to negotiate a trade deal.
It comes after the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said in a post on social media site X that she had spoken to Mr Trump and expressed that they needed until 9 July to “reach a good deal”.
The US president had last Friday threatened to bring in the 50% tariffs from 1 June, as European leaders said they were ready to respond with their own measures.
But Mr Trump has now said that date has been put back to 9 July to allow more time for negotiations with the 27-member bloc, with the phone call appearing to smooth over tensions for now at least.
Speaking on Sunday before boarding Air Force One for Washington DC, Mr Trump told reporters that he had spoken to Ms Von der Leyen and she “wants to get down to serious negotiations” and she vowed to “rapidly get together and see if we can work something out”.
The US president, in comments on his Truth Social platform, had reignited fears last Friday of a trade war between the two powers when he said talks were “going nowhere” and the bloc was “very difficult to deal with”.
Mr Trump told the media in Morristown, New Jersey, on Sunday that Ms Von der Leyen “just called me… and she asked for an extension in the June 1st date. And she said she wants to get down to serious negotiation”.
“We had a very nice call and I agreed to move it. I believe July 9th would be the date. That was the date she requested. She said we will rapidly get together and see if we can work something out,” the US president added.
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Shortly after, he wrote on Truth Social: “I agreed to the extension – July 9, 2025 – It was my privilege to do so.”
On his so-called “liberation day” last month, Mr Trump unleashed tariffs on many of America’s trade partners. But since then he’s backed down in a spiralling tit-for-tat tariff face-off with China, and struck a deal with the UK.
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Much of his most incendiary rhetoric on trade has been directed at Brussels, though, even going as far as to claim the EU was created to rip the US off.
Responding to his 50% tariff threat, EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said: “EU-US trade is unmatched and must be guided by mutual respect, not threats.
“We stand ready to defend our interests.”
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