Walkie-talkie firm in Japan probes Lebanon blasts link; Israel declares ‘new phase’ of war

The blasts that rocked Lebanon for a second day reached the doors of a walkie-talkie maker in Japan on Thursday, as Israel’s declaration of a “new phase” to the conflict raised fears of all-out war.

At least 32 people, including two children, were killed and thousands more injured across Lebanon, the country’s health ministry said early Thursday, after devices belonging to Hezbollah members exploded in a two-day wave of attacks that left the country reeling and the region on the brink.

The stunning operation against walkie-talkies and pagers has left the Iran-backed militant and political group in disarray, with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah set to deliver a much-anticipated response later Thursday. The attacks have also rattled an already beleaguered Lebanon, with hospitals overwhelmed and the public unsure if it’s safe to use a mobile phone. 

As the world urged against further escalation after months of devastating war with Hamas in Gaza, Israel indicated its focus had shifted to its northern border with Lebanon.

“The ‘center of gravity’ is moving northward — resources and forces are being allocated [to this front],” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in an address at an airbase Wednesday, without mentioning the explosions. “We are at the start of a new phase in the war — it requires courage, determination and perseverance on our part,” he said.

Gallant, in a separate post on X, said he spoke with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin overnight, briefing him on “IDF operations in the southern and northern arenas, focusing on Israel’s defense against Hezbollah threats.”

The Israeli military said it had struck Hezbollah infrastructure and a weapons storage facility in southern Lebanon in overnight air strikes. Israeli artillery also struck several areas in southern Lebanon, the IDF said in a statement early Thursday.

In northern Israel, at least eight people were injured by anti-tank fire from across the Lebanon border, health authorities said early Thursday.

Two U.S. officials told NBC News that Israel told its ally it was going to do something in Lebanon, but they did not give any details, and that the U.S. was caught by surprise when the reports of the pager attacks emerged Tuesday. 

While Israel has not taken responsibility for the attacks, the militant group and Lebanese officials also pinned the blame on Israel.

The country’s foreign minister, Abdallah Rashid Bouhabib, was set to participate in an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council in New York on Friday. 

Exploding devices leave a trail from Taiwan to Bulgaria

Lebanon’s civil aviation agency on Thursday directed all airlines flying out of its main airport in Beirut to prohibit passengers from transporting pagers and walkie-talkies, state news agency NNA reported. 

The agency also prohibited their transportation via freight cargo.

The Lebanese Telecommunications Ministry identified the exploding devices on Wednesday as Icom V82s, a type of handheld walkie-talkie.

Osaka-based Icom said Thursday it had not shipped that model for 10 years after it ceased production of the unit.

“There’s no way a bomb could have been integrated into one of our devices during manufacturing,” Yoshiki Enomoto, a director at ICOM, said outside the company’s headquarters Thursday.

“The process is highly automated and fast-paced, so there’s no time for such things,” he told Reuters.

Enomoto added the company cannot confirm if the devices shipped by Icom to the Middle East a decade ago were involved in the explosions because it didn’t put any hologram stickers on them, a common way of verifying the authenticity of products.

Icom’s website lists the V82 as one of its most counterfeited products. 

“No parts other than those specified by our company are used in a product,” Icom said in a statement. The firm declined NBC News’ request for further comment.

As the world scrambled to track how the devices that exploded made their way into the hands of Hezbollah, Bulgaria’s state news agency said Thursday the country was investigating the possible involvement of a company registered in the country, without directly naming it.

Images of the pagers bore the name of a Taiwanese electronics manufacturer, Gold Apollo, which said the pagers were made by another firm. The company named a Hungarian firm, BAC Consulting, as its partner and said the firm was authorized to use Gold Apollo’s logo for product sales in certain regions, “but the design and manufacturing of the products are entirely handled by BAC.”

Whether original Gold Apollo products were tampered with, or entirely fake ones manufactured, was still being investigated, a spokesperson for the Taiwanese Ministry of Economic Affairs told NBC News.

Hungarian officials said BAC Consulting was just a trading intermediary and none of the pagers had been inside the country.

The company’s chief executive, Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono, confirmed to NBC News on Wednesday that her company worked with Gold Apollo. But when asked about the pagers, she said over the phone, “I don’t make the pagers. I am just the intermediate. I think you got it wrong.”

Bársony-Arcidiacono has since not responded to requests for further comment.