Israel conducted a wave of airstrikes on the south of Lebanon’s capital Beirut on Friday (September 27, 2024) that it said targeted Hezbollah’s headquarters, moments after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to keep fighting the militant group.

The strikes, heard across the Mediterranean city, sent huge clouds of smoke soaring above its densely populated southern suburbs, the main bastion of Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Hezbollah has been fighting Israeli troops along the Lebanon border since its Palestinian ally Hamas staged its unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7.

Israel shifted its focus from the war in Gaza to Lebanon this week, unleashing air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds around the country that have killed hundreds and forced 118,000 more to flee their homes.

While Friday’s (September 27, 2024) strikes on south Beirut were not this week’s first, they were by far the fiercest.

“Oh my God, what strikes. I felt like the building was going to collapse on top of me,” said Abir Hammoud, a teacher in her 40s who lives in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Vowing to secure its border with Lebanon, Israel has since Monday (September 23, 2024) pounded Hezbollah strongholds chiefly in the east and south of the country, defying calls from world leaders and aid agencies to halt the violence.

Nasrallah ‘fine’

A source close to Hezbollah said the strikes levelled six buildings, and according to a preliminary toll, two people were killed and 76 wounded.

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said the strike targeted “the central headquarters” of Hezbollah in the southern suburbs of the city.

Israeli television networks reported that Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was the target of the strike, though the source close to Hezbollah said he was “fine”.

The bombing came moments after Mr. Netanyahu concluded his address to U.N. General Assembly delegates in New York, in which he vowed to keep up strikes against Hezbollah and fight “until victory” against Hamas.

Earlier this month, Mr. Netanyahu said Israel would fight Hezbollah until thousands of Israelis displaced by the cross-border fighting could return to their homes.

“As long as Hezbollah chooses the path of war, Israel has no choice, and Israel has every right to remove this threat and return our citizens to their home safe,” Mr. Netanyahu told the U.N. General Assembly, adding that operations against the Iran-backed militant group will “continue until we meet our objectives.”

Earlier on Friday (September 27, 2024), Hezbollah fired rockets into the northern Israeli city of Tiberias, saying it was responding to “savage” strikes on Lebanese towns and villages.

‘Deadliest in a generation’

The U.N. has repeatedly condemned the sharp escalation of violence between Israel and Lebanon.

“We are witnessing the deadliest period in Lebanon in a generation, and many express their fear that this is just the beginning,” the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon, Imran Riza, said.

In Israel, too, many were weary of the violence.

“It is incredibly exhausting to be in this situation. We don’t really know what’s going to happen, there’s talk of a ground offensive or a major operation,” said Lital Shmuelovich, a physiotherapy student.

In New York, Mr. Netanyahu also addressed the war in Gaza, saying that Israel’s military would continue to fight Hamas until the Islamist movement was crushed.

“If Hamas stays in power, it will regroup… and attack Israel again and again and again… So Hamas has got to go,” Mr. Netanyahu said, vowing to fight the group until “total victory”.

Diplomats have said efforts to end the war in Gaza were key to halting the fighting in Lebanon and bringing the region back from the brink of all-out war.

But despite months of mediation efforts, a Gaza ceasefire remains elusive.

Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.

Of the 251 hostages seized by militants, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,534 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN has described the figures as reliable.

‘Change the rules’

The Lebanon violence has raised fears of wider turmoil in the Middle East, with Iran-backed militants across the region vowing to keep up their fight with Israel.

Mr. Netanyahu took aim at Iran in his U.N. General Assembly address, saying: “I have a message for the tyrants of Tehran. If you strike us, we will strike you.”

He added: “There is no place in Iran that the long arm of Israel cannot reach, and that’s true of the entire Middle East.”

Analysts have said Iran would try to resist being dragged into the conflict.

But following the Beirut strikes, Iran’s Embassy in Lebanon said: “This reprehensible crime… represents a dangerous escalation that changes the rules of the game.”

Israel “will receive the appropriate punishment”, it added in a post on X.

A communication device on the ground as Lebanese Army forces (not in picture) prepare to destroy it in a controlled explosion, in southern Lebanon between the villages of Burj al Muluk and Klayaa, on September 19, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

On Sunday (September 15, 2024), Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, told his security Cabinet that he would do whatever necessary to make sure that the 70,000 Israelis displaced from the northern border villages by the fighting with Hezbollah, return home. Two days later, on Tuesday (September 17, 2024), in the late afternoon, hundreds of pagers, a low-tech messaging device, started exploding simultaneously across Lebanon and parts of Syria. At least 12 people were killed and over 2,800 were injured. A day later, on Wednesday (September 18, 2024), walkie-talkies and other electronic devices exploded in Lebanon, leaving 20 more dead and at least 450 others injured.

The explosions mostly hit Hezbollah, the Shia militia group backed by Iran which has been using pagers and walkie-talkies for communication among its ranks. Hezbollah immediately blamed Israel for the attack. Iran accused Israel of mass murder in Lebanon. Several others raised questions about weaponising civilian communication devices. Lebanon’s health officials said there were at least two children among the dead and that they can’t say with certainty how many of the victims were civilians and how many of them were Hezbollah members. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its role in the explosions — its standard response when it comes to controversial overseas operations. But if Israel is really behind the attack, the question is how they pulled an attack of this scale off.

Taiwanese connection

Initially there were different theories pointing to different possibilities, including cyber warfare and supply-side penetration to tamper with the devices. Most of the pagers that exploded were AR924s that carried the brand name of Gold Apollo, a Taiwan-based company founded in 1995. After Tuesday’s (September 17, 2024) explosions, Gold Apollo issued a statement, saying it was not involved in the production of the pagers in question. “The product was not ours. It was only that it had our brand on it,” Gold Apollo founder and president, Hsu Ching-kuang, told reporters at the company’s office in New Taipei on Wednesday (September 18, 2024).

In the statement, the company said the AR924 model pagers were manufactured by BAC Consulting KFT, a Hungarian company. “Gold Apollo has established a long-term partnership with BAC Consulting”, and it has authorised “BAC to use our brand trademark for product sales in specific regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are entirely handled by BAC,” the short statement said. Gold Apollo did not offer any details about its contract with BAC.

Hungarian connection

BAC Consulting, based in Budapest, operates in “environmental, political and development projects”, according to the company’s LinkedIn page, which has 303 followers as of Thursday (September 19, 2024). The page has no reference to the company’s involvement in manufacturing of electronic devices. It says BAC works to find “innovative solutions” to tackle challenges of “development, international affairs and environment”. Cristiana Rosaria Bársony-Arcidiacono, a 49-year-old PhD in particle physics, is the CEO of the company.

According to Ms. Bársony-Arcidiacono’s LinkedIn profile, she has advocated “environmental and social causes for developing and fragile countries” and has published articles in science journals. She did her PG masters in SOAS, London, and a diploma in politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. But what does a particle physics PhD with experience in the fields of environmental and developmental consulting have to do with pager manufacturing? “I don’t make the pagers. I am just the intermediate. I think you got it wrong,” Ms. Bársony-Arcidiacono told U.S. broadcaster NBC on the phone. But she did not say BAC was not involved. And if Gold Apollo is to be believed, the little-known Budapest-based company that claims to be working in the fields of development and environment consulting was designing and manufacturing Taiwanese pagers and selling them to Hezbollah in Lebanon and parts of Syria. And they exploded at a critical juncture of the Hezbollah-Israel war. Both the knowns and unknowns of the explosion saga point to bigger behind-the-scenes players.

The hidden hand

According to a New York Times report, which cites defence and intelligence officials, BAC Consulting was a front company of the Israeli intelligence agencies. The report says Israeli intelligence officials set up three shell companies, including BAC, which was formally registered in Hungary in 2022. Hezbollah was wary of using cell phones, fearing Israeli penetration. They turned to pagers for communication, and Israel established a company to make those pagers — with inbuilt PETN (pentaerythritol tetranitrate) explosives, and a switch to detonate them remotely.

The back-to-back explosions have dealt a blow to Hezbollah, whose senior commander Fuad Shukr was assassinated by Israel on July 30 in Beirut. Israel has once again demonstrated its willingness and capability to take great risks in attacking its rivals. But with Hezbollah vowing vengeance, tensions on Israel’s northern border are likely to flare up in coming days.