The company responsible for manufacturing the pagers involved in the wave of explosions targeting Hezbollah terrorists in Syria and Lebanon was established by Israeli operatives as part of the Mossad operation to target the Iranian-backed Lebanese terror group, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

Thousands of Hezbollah members were wounded and at least 32 killed in a pair of bombing attacks Tuesday and Wednesday, in which thousands of pagers and hand-held radios simultaneously detonated across Lebanon and Syria, apparently the result of Israeli sabotage.

Hezbollah had ordered the devices as part of its plan to evade Israeli tracking through modern cellular devices.

It appears, however, that the pagers ordered by Hezbollah and distributed to its members were in fact supplied by a shell company which had been established by Israel’s Mossad, according to the Times report.

The pagers in question, AR-924 model devices bearing the Gold Apollo brand, were manufactured by an outside party which had licensed the Taiwan-based company’s brand.

On Wednesday, Gold Apollo founder and president Hsu Ching-Kuang told reporters that the Hungarian company BAC was responsible for the pagers’ manufacture.

“The product was not ours. It was only that it had our brand on it,” Hsu said.

“We may not be a large company, but we are a responsible one,” the Gold Apollo president said, expressing surprise that the pagers could be rigged with explosives and detonated. “This is very embarrassing.”

Hsu added that BAC’s payments to Gold Apollo for use of its license were “very strange,” saying the payments originated in the Middle East.

According to the Times report, as Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah became increasingly concerned by Israel’s ability to track the movement Hezbollah terrorists and sought alternative communications methods, Israeli security intelligence officers began making preparations for the operation which culminated in the attacks Tuesday and Wednesday.

At least three separate shell companies were established for the purposes of the operation, three intelligence officials said, adding that BAC served a number of customers in order to establish and maintain its cover, manufacturing “a range of ordinary pagers.”

While the first pagers were delivered to Hezbollah in the summer of 2022, production was accelerated dramatically in February, which thousands of devices delivered this summer.