A Hungary-based company suspected of supplying Hezbollah with the pagers that exploded across Lebanon on Tuesday was actually an Israeli shell company established by Israeli spies, The New York Times reported on Thursday citing three American intelligence officers.

The large-scale operation killed several Hezbollah members and injured thousands across Lebanon, where the Iran-backed terrorist group is based, and Syria.

Rather than tampering with existing devices during production or distribution, Israel actually “manufactured them as part of an elaborate ruse,” the report said. While the company did indeed manufacture standard pagers for other customers, these were “produced separately, [and] contained batteries laced with PETN,” a highly explosive stable material.

Following the first round of explosions, hundreds of walkie-talkies used by the group also detonated on Wednesday, causing mass panic across Lebanon.

According to The New York Times, the firm, BAC Consulting, was listed as an LTD in 2022 but its website was established in October 2020.

Two other shell companies were also reportedly created to obscure the connection between BAC and Israel, the unnamed officers said.

The devices reportedly began arriving in small numbers to Lebanon in 2022, with production increasing as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah publicly urged followers to avoid cellphones due to concerns they could be tracked by Israel.

Nasrallah warned supporters during a speech in February, saying, “The phone in your hands, in your wife’s hands, and in your children’s hands is the agent … Bury it. Put it in an iron box and lock it.”

“Israeli intelligence officials saw an opportunity,” the Times report noted.

With Hezbollah relying more heavily on the explosive-laden pagers, Israeli intelligence viewed them as “buttons” that could be triggered at any moment, ultimately leading to Tuesday’s explosions.

The pagers that detonated in Lebanon were branded with the logo of a Taiwanese company, Gold Apollo. While BAC was authorized to use Gold Apollo’s branding, the latter stated that “the design and manufacturing of the products are solely the responsibility of BAC.”

Lebanese authorities said the explosions were catastrophic, killing 12 people and injuring nearly 3,000 bystanders, most of whom were either Hezbollah operatives or civilians nearby. Another 20 died when walkie-talkies exploded the following day. Both devices, the report claimed, were rigged with PETN.

BAC Consulting denied any involvement, with its CEO Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono saying that her firm only acted as an intermediary in the transactions and was not responsible for manufacturing the pagers. “I don’t make the pagers. I am just the intermediary. I think you got it wrong,” Bársony-Arcidiacono told NBC News.

A Hungarian government spokesperson echoed this, stating that BAC merely facilitated the trade and that the pagers had never actually entered Hungary. “Authorities have confirmed that the company in question is a trading intermediary, with no manufacturing or operational site in Hungary. It has one manager registered at its declared address, and the referenced devices have never been in Hungary,” wrote Zoltán Kovács on X.

Hezbollah holds Israel responsible for the explosions and has vowed retaliation. Israel has neither publicly confirmed nor denied responsibility for the blasts.

In a televised address on Thursday, Nasrallah admitted that the terror group had sustained a “major and unprecedented massacre.”

“We have undoubtedly experienced a significant security and military setback, one that is unparalleled in the history of the resistance and in the history of Lebanon,” Nasrallah stated in his address.

“This kind of killing, targeting, and crime may be unprecedented in the world,” he added, saying the attacks were “a declaration of war.”

“The enemy has lost all control, laws, and morals,” he said. “Israel intended to kill 4,000 people in one minute by detonating the pagers. Many of them were civilians,” Nasrallah said, despite the fact that the devices were carried exclusively by Hezbollah operatives. “The following day, 1,000 more in one minute. In two minutes, Israel intended to kill 5,000.”

He vowed that the more than 60,000 Israelis from northern Israel who have been evacuated from their homes would not return.

Hours after his speech, Israeli fighter jets targeted more than 60 Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon, in one of the biggest waves of attacks since the beginning of the war.

Earlier in the day, two Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers were killed and nine more wounded after Hezbollah launched a barrage of anti-tank missiles and drones in the north.

During a visit to Northern Command on Wednesday, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi alluded to the fact that Israel has yet unseen methods of war to be deployed against Hezbollah.

“We have many more capabilities that we have not yet used,” he said. “We are well prepared and we are laying the groundwork for these plans going forward.”

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