The pagers held by thousands of Hezbollah members that were detonated Tuesday are believed to have come from an Israeli front company, the New York Times reported, citing three intelligence sources with knowledge of the operation.

According to the American media outlet BAC Consulting, the Hungarian company that allegedly sold the booby-trapped pagers to the party is a "shell company." The company was "Israeli" and "produced pagers for the Taiwanese company Gold Apollo." According to the NYT article, at least two other companies were created to cover up the fact that the devices were manufactured by Israeli intelligence agents.

"Even before Hassan Nasrallah decided to expand the use of pagers, Israel had a plan in place to create a shell company that would pose as an international producer of pagers," the NYT wrote.

“BAC took on ordinary customers, for whom it produced a range of standard pagers. But the only customer that really mattered was Hezbollah, and its pagers were far from ordinary. Produced separately, they contained batteries impregnated with the explosive PETN,” the NYT continued, citing three intelligence officers.

“The pagers began being shipped to Lebanon in the summer of 2022 in small quantities, but production quickly increased after Mr. Nasrallah urged his supporters not to use their cell phones,” the American daily added.

Hezbollah's secretary general has repeatedly warned of the risks posed by smartphones, describing them as "easily controllable spying devices."

"Throw away your smartphones, bury them, put them in a metal box and move them away," the leader of the party said during one of his speeches in February, after the start of the war between his organization and Israel, in the wake of the conflict in Gaza that broke out on Oct. 7, 2023.

Over the summer, pager shipments to Lebanon increased, with thousands arriving in the country and being distributed among Hezbollah officers and their allies, according to two U.S. intelligence officials interviewed by the newspaper.

“For Hezbollah, it was a defensive measure, but in Israel, intelligence officials referred to the pagers as ‘buttons’ to be activated when the moment was right. That moment appears to have arrived this week,” the NYT wrote, adding that according to three intelligence and defense officials, the explosion was triggered when Israel activated the pagers to beep and sent a message in Arabic that appeared to come from Hezbollah’s top leadership.

On Tuesday, a Lebanese security source interviewed by Reuters said that the pagers were manufactured by the Taiwan-based company Gold Apollo. This information was quickly denied by the company concerned. According to the Taiwanese Ministry of Economic Affairs, in a statement quoted by NBC, Gold Apollo exported 260,000 pagers between 2022 and August 2024, mainly to European and American markets.

"There is no trace of direct export to Lebanon," the statement added. A spokesperson for the Taiwanese Ministry of Economic Affairs contacted by NBC then raised on Wednesday the possibility of manufacturing "by another producer, who would have simply labeled them with the Apollo brand," stressing that this possibility is currently under investigation.

Gold Apollo also said on Wednesday that Budapest-based Hungarian company BAC Consulting KFT had a license to produce the beepers and had manufactured the devices delivered to Lebanon.

“Under a cooperation agreement, we authorize BAC to use our brand for the sale of products in certain regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are the sole responsibility of BAC,” Gold Apollo said in a statement. However, BAC Consulting CEO Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono denied that the company manufactures the devices when contacted by phone by the American network NBC.

“I am just the middleman. I think you are mistaken,” she said, although she confirmed that she works with Gold Apollo. Barsony-Arcidiacono describes herself, according to her LinkedIn page, as a “strategic consultant on the Middle East.”