Hezbollah retaliation : Hezbollah announces retaliation against Israel following deadly attacks in Lebanon
escalating tensions in the region. Learn more about the Middle East conflict updates.

of the Lebanese militant group
Hezbollah were made by European
company Gold Apollo.

According to the New York Times,
Israel hid the explosives in the
pagers sent to Hezbollah
and ordered from Gold Apollo.

Images shared on social media from Lebanon appear to show a

damaged Apollo Golden Pager. CNN could not provide the geographical location of the image, but confirmed

it was released on Tuesday at the same time as the explosion.

At least one of the pagers shown in the picture was a Gold Apollo AR924 model.

Gold Apollo founder and chairman Hsu Qingguang told reporters on Wednesday that his company has signed an agreement with a European distributor to use the Gold Apollo brand.

Mr. Hsu said the distributor,

Mr. Hsu said the distributor, who declined to give his name, established a

relationship with Gold Apollo about three years ago.

Initially, the European company imported only Gold Apollo’s other

pagers and communications products, he said. The company

then told Gold Apollo that it wanted to make its own pager and asked for the rights to use the Taiwanese company’s trademark, he said.

Su said Gold Apollo had at least one anomaly in its contract with a

distributor, citing a wire transfer that took a long time to clear.

A senior Taiwanese security official told CNN on Wednesday that

Taiwan has no record of sending Apollo Golden Pagers to Lebanon

or the Middle East. People familiar with the matter told CNN that

Gold Apollo shipped about 260,000 pagers from Taiwan, mostly to the United States and Australia.

On Tuesday, the pagers of several hundred members of Hezbollah

in Lebanon turned on almost simultaneously.

The Iran-backed militant group said the wireless devices began

detonating around 3:30 p.m. Local time: Israeli attacks against Hezbollah militants.

CNN has learned that Israel is behind the attack, which is a joint

operation between Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency and the

Israeli military. The Lebanese government condemned the attack as a “criminal Israeli occupation”.