How was the attack possible?

The operation was launched on Tuesday, September 17, at 3:30 p.m.: thousands of simultaneous explosions took place in Lebanon. The victims, for the vast majority, were members of the Shiite militia Hezbollah. All were equipped with a Gold Apollo beeper. According to the first elements of the investigation, a few grams of explosive were placed inside each beeper. Gold Apollo is a company based in Taiwan, specializing in wireless radio messaging systems. Very quickly, the company’s director denied having manufactured and delivered the product. However, Gold Apollo admitted to having signed, three years earlier, a contract with a Hungarian company to sell its beeper. BAC Consulting would be, according to the Taiwanese company, responsible for manufacturing the product.

But the company’s headquarters, located on the outskirts of Budapest, is an empty building. On the Hungarian commercial register, BAC Consulting has been active since May 2022. The only registered employee now claims to be just an intermediary and knows nothing. According to Hungarian media, BAC Consulting may have acted on behalf of a Bulgarian company, Norta Global. Here too, there is no trace of activity at the company’s headquarters. The two companies could be part of a network of shell companies aimed at concealing the sponsor of the operation, a practice known to the intelligence services.