Joe Tidy
Cyber correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

Until yesterday, pagers were something of a forgotten technology.

They used to be a regular sight in hospitals and with emergency services but are now rarely talked about, after being usurped in the 2000s by mobile phones.

These low-tech boxes about the size of a cigarette packet are usually attached to belt buckles for quick reference.

They work by syncing up with high powered transmitters - you don’t need many of them to cover a large area, unlike mobile phone masts.

Pagers are always listening for new messages being sent out on their frequency and most pagers can only receive information - they emit no signals themselves.

This is why Hezbollah reportedly favoured them over mobile phones, as pager users can not be located through GPS or other means.

When a pager receives a message, it beeps and vibrates and a short bit of text is displayed - usually asking the receiver to call the person back or go to a location.

A plane carrying medical supplies for hospitals in Lebanon has arrived in its capital Beirut this morning.

The shipment from Iraq contains some 15 tonnes of medicine and supplies.

Lebanon's health minister, Firass Abiad, says a second plane, carrying 70 tonnes of medicine and supplies, is due to arrive later, according to a report by the Iraqi News Agency.

Elsewhere, volunteers from the Iranian Red Crescent Society, a non-governmental humanitarian organisation, have also arrived in Lebanon.

The group from the Red Crescent Relief and Treatment Team includes 12 general and specialised doctors and 12 nurses and paramedics, a statement from the Iranian embassy says on X.

It comes as hospitals in Lebanon continue to struggle to help the more than 2,000 people wounded on Tuesday, some of whom were left blinded, while others have needed amputations.

Image source, Reuters

As unexploded pagers are examined, all signs point to Mossadpublished at 09:52 British Summer Time 18 September

09:52 BST 18 September

Frank Gardner
Security correspondent

Explosives experts say a number of Hezbollah’s pagers have been recovered intact - ie, those that did not go off, and these are now being forensically exploited for clues.

The investigative trail involves at least six places, possibly more. There is Lebanon and Syria, where the pagers exploded, Iran, which supplies Hezbollah and whose ambassador in Beirut was injured in the blasts.

Then there is Taiwan, where the pagers were initially thought to have come directly from, since they bore the logo of a Taiwanese company, Gold Apollo. But now the trail leads to Hungary where they are believed to have been produced.

Finally, there is Israel, the one country whose overseas intelligence agency Mossad, is thought to know exactly how this all happened.

Although Israel is not commenting, there is no other state or organisation that has both the technical capability and the intent to inflict such a serious blow to Hezbollah, and indirectly to its backers in Iran.

Israel also has form. In 1996 its domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet assassinated a leading Hamas bombmaker, Yahya Ayyash, by sabotaging his mobile phone which blew up, killing him instantly.

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

Already fears were running high of a new escalation between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israel’s leaders have been threatening to step up military action to return thousands of displaced citizens from the north of the country to their homes after nearly a year of cross-border fighting sparked by the war in Gaza.

Now, Hezbollah has threatened retaliation for the latest dramatic, wide-scale attack.

While Israel’s military has declined to comment, international media quote unnamed US and Lebanese sources saying that Israeli operatives hid small amounts of explosive material within a new batch of pagers imported into Lebanon.

This morning, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, is in Egypt to discuss Gaza ceasefire talks.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it attacked a building where a number of Hezbollah members were last night.

In a post on X, it says its forces "identified a number of terrorists from the Hezbollah terrorist organization" who were "operating in a military structure" near the southern Lebanon village of Majdal Salem.

"Closing a circle from the air, fighter jets attacked the building where the terrorists were operating."

IDF warplanes also attacked Hezbollah buildings in five areas of southern Lebanon, the statement adds.

As a reminder, the Israeli military have declined to comment on the thousands of pagers that detonated across Lebanon on Tuesday afternoon.

Image source, Reuters

As we've been reporting, a number of people died and thousands more were injured when pagers used by members of the militant group Hezbollah exploded on Tuesday. Here's the latest:

• A senior Lebanese security source and another source tells Reuters that Mossad - the Israeli spy agency - planted a small number of explosives inside 5,000 Taiwan-made pagers ordered by Hezbollah
• Separately, Israeli and US sources have told Axios and Al-Monitor that the explosions were detonated early after fears Hezbollah had learnt about the plan. The sources suggest the idea had been for this to form the opening move for an "all-out" offensive
• The founder of that Taiwanese firm has denied any involvement with the explosions. It comes after images of pagers were posted on social media - which appeared to indicate they could have been made by the Taiwan-based Gold Apollo Company Ltd
• Hezbollah, as well as Lebanon's prime minister, are blaming Israel for the attack. The Israeli military have declined to comment
• The Iranian ambassador to Beirut was one of those injured yesterday afternoon. His wife has since said he is doing well

A BBC team in Taipei has just been to the offices of Gold Apollo, the Taiwanese firm that's found itself in the spotlight following these explosions.

Police officers are still inside the premises, as they continue to question staff and examine documents.

In the meantime, a pretty sizeable media scrum has developed outside.

As we reported earlier, Gold Apollo's founder denied his company had anything to do with the explosions in Lebanon.

Hsu Ching-Kuang said his company had signed an agreement three years ago with a Hungary-based company called BAC. He said it gave the company the right to use Gold Apollo's logo but nothing else.

Image source, Joy Chiang/BBC

As we reported earlier, the exploding pagers seemed to have a Taiwanese brand - although the Taiwanese firm says the pagers aren't theirs.

Now, Taiwan's economy ministry says there is "no record of direct export to Lebanon".

Taking questions from the media in Taiwan, the ministry says the Gold Apollo company exported 260,000 pagers from 2022 up until August of this year - mainly to Europe and the United States.

"Those products do not have potential of explosion as reported by the media," the ministry adds.

"The company is doubtful that the product belongs to them after reviewing the photos from media and judged the pagers were likely modified after export."

Image source, Reuters

Author and former BBC journalist Kim Ghattas was on her way home from a funeral in Beirut yesterday when the explosions started to happen.

She describes to BBC Radio 4's Today programme that she felt "emotion after emotion and trauma after trauma".

"It was really a scene of chaos across the city because people didn't instantly understand what was happening," Ghattas adds.

"We first thought it was one large explosion in the south of Beirut, it then became clear there were simultaneous small explosions everywhere.

"Then we started seeing CCTV from inside shops and supermarkets of these small explosions targeting people doing their groceries or paying at the checkout.

"Then for hours on end [we heard] the wail of sirens. The internal security forces were asking people to get off the streets because traffic was overwhelming the city.

"It was really a national traumatic event," Ghattas tells the programme.

Ghoncheh Habibiazad
BBC Monitoring

Mojtaba Amani, the Iranian ambassador to Beirut, was injured following the pager explosions in Lebanon yesterday. His wife, Narges Qadirian, announced that he was "slightly" injured and had been taken to hospital, but was doing well.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi spoke with Amani's wife by phone yesterday to discuss the ambassador's condition, external.

Qadirian further posted on X, external today, saying that her husband's treatment was "going well".

As we reported earlier, a Lebanese source and another source told Reuters that Mossad - the Israeli spy agency - placed explosives in thousands of Hezbollah pagers, which were imported months ago.

Separately, Israeli and US sources tell Axios and Al-Monitor the explosions were initially planned as the opening move in an "all-out" offensive against Hezbollah.

But in recent days, Israel became concerned Hezbollah had become aware of the plan - so they were detonated early.

"It was a use it or lose it moment," a US official tells Axios.

Image source, Social media

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah will make an address tomorrow, a statement from the Iran-backed group says.

Nasrallah will speak at 15:00 BST (14:00 GMT) and address "the latest developments", the group adds.

Image source, Reuters

• Warning: This post contains graphic detail

Our colleagues at Newsday have spoken to Tracy Chamoun, a writer and politician who previously served as Lebanon’s ambassador to Jordan.

She spoke to the programme from Beirut - describing yesterday's events as "pretty horrifying".

She explains she was driving at the time "in that area - what we call the southern suburbs, which is the stronghold of Hezbollah".

While on a flyover she describes seeing a "huge commotion", with many people lying on the road before there was a "scramble" to take people to hospital.

Chamoun saw one man with his eye blown out and another "had half of his face ripped off".

She further suggests: "Most of the surgeries were eye surgeries...

"These pagers emitted a sound before being detonated to encourage people to take them out of their pockets or from their desks and lift them to their heads or their faces."

The Lebanese health minister said yesterday that most injuries appeared to be to faces and hands. You can listen to Chamoun's full interview here.

Image source, Reuters

Rupert Wingfield-Hayes
Reporting from Taipei

As we just reported, it seems the exploding pagers could have been "Gold AR-924" models.

But the founder of Taiwanese electronics manufacturer, Gold Apollo, has denied his company has anything to do with the thousands of pagers that exploded in Lebanon.

The founder, Hsu Ching-Kuang, said his company had signed an agreement with a European based company to manufacture the devices and use his company name.

He told reporters his company had signed an agreement three years ago with a European based company called BAC. It gave the company the right to manufacture its pager design and use his company logo.

"We only provide brand trademark authorisation and have no involvement in the design or manufacturing of this product," he says.

Gold Apollo now says that company, BAC, is based in Budapest, Hungary.

Hsu told reporters he was extremely shocked about what happened in Lebanon, and that his company is also a victim.

Police are inside the Gold Apollo offices in Taipei, questioning staff and examining documents.

Image source, Reu

What can we determine from apparent debris?published at 07:08 British Summer Time 18 September

07:08 BST 18 September

By James Kelly

We've been examining images posted on social media around the time of the blasts, which show fragments of the rear casings of two pagers.

We can't verify whether these pagers were definitely involved in the wave of explosions because they are close-up images with few additional clues as to where they were captured.

Image source, Social media

Labels can be seen on the fragments which would ordinarily show the distributor, model number and operating frequency of the pagers - but because they’re damaged, the information that remains is incomplete.

What can be seen clearly is the word "GOLD" on both fragments, and a partial model number that looks like "AR-9" or possibly "AP-9".

One of the images appears to show a "USB - C" port, its plastic cover peeled back. Three decorative grooves can also been seen.

These indicators seem to point to a model called the Rugged Pager AR-924, made by the Taiwan-based Gold Apollo Company Ltd.

Reuters news agency reports, external that Israel's Mossad spy agency planted a small amount of explosives inside 5,000 Taiwan-made pagers ordered by Lebanese group Hezbollah - months before Tuesday's detonations, citing a senior Lebanese security source and another source.

Reuters also adds that the plot appears to have been many months in the making, citing several sources.

The attack targeted Hezbollah and has left hospitals in Lebanon overwhelmed – some victims have been blinded, while others have needed amputations.

We're re-starting our live coverage after nine people, including a child, were killed as handheld pagers used by members of the militant group Hezbollah exploded across Lebanon on Tuesday afternoon.

Hospitals were inundated with the wounded, with health authorities saying at least 2,800 other people were injured - 200 of them in a critical condition.

Among those wounded was Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani.

Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, said the pagers belonged “to employees of various Hezbollah units and institutions” and confirmed the deaths of eight of its fighters.

The group has blamed Israel, as has Lebanon's prime minister. The Israeli military have declined to comment.

Panic and shock here as sirens continue to ring outpublished at 23:09 British Summer Time 17 September

23:09 BST 17 September

Nafiseh Kohnavard
Reporting from Beirut

This is something completely different from what Lebanon has witnessed during the past 11 months of cross-border clashes between Hezbollah and Israel.

Unlike in July, when an Israeli airstrike on a Hezbollah stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut killed the group's commander Fuad Shukr, we didn't hear any explosions today.

But still, Beirut was shaken by the news that multiple small blasts happened not only in the capital but in other areas of the country as well.

Driving towards downtown Beirut earlier, on one of the main roads of the city, we had to pull over multiple times to open the road for ambulances rushing towards different hospitals. Sirens could be heard late into the night - a sign of how significant this was.

Hezbollah says it’s planning for an "appropriate retaliation", but what that will look like is not yet known.

Today's attacks exposed many members at various levels. While the group says many of those injured are medical staff or administrative personnel and not fighters, this is considered a big blow to Hezbollah’s operation - materially and morally.

Ben Hatton
Live reporter

Pagers used by militant group Hezbollah exploded simultaneously across Lebanon on Tuesday afternoon, with thousands thought to be injured and deaths reported.

The scale and nature of the incident has caught many off-guard - several Middle East security analysts told the BBC it was unprecedented.

Nine people have been confirmed dead and nearly 3,000 injured, 200 of them seriously, Lebanon's minister of public health Firass Abiad said, adding most injuries appear to be to the face and hands.

Hezbollah - an Iranian-backed Lebanese armed group, which is banned as a terrorist organisation in the UK, US and other countries - said eight of its members had been killed, and a young girl, the daughter of a Hezbollah member, was also reported to be among the dead.

Image source, EPA

Hezbollah has blamed Israel and said it will receive "its just punishment". Israel has not directly commented.

The pager explosions came just hours after Israel made the return of residents displaced by Hezbollah attacks in the north of its territory one of its war goals.

You can find out more about the incident, why Hezbollah uses pagers, and see a video appearing to show one of the explosions in our explainer piece here.

For now, though, we're pausing our live coverage - which was brought to you by Sam Hancock, Jacqueline Howard, Francesca Gillett, Adam Durbin, Imogen James, Frances Mao, Tinshui Yeung, Nathan Williams and me.

What can we determine from apparent debris?published at 22:35 British Summer Time 17 September

22:35 BST 17 September

By James Kelly

We've been examining images posted on social media around the time of the blasts, which show fragments of the rear casings of two pagers.

We can't verify whether these pagers were definitely involved in the wave of explosions because they are close-up images with few additional clues as to where they were captured.

Image source, Social media

Labels can be seen on the fragments which would ordinarily show the distributor, model number and operating frequency of the pagers - but because they’re damaged, the information that remains is incomplete.

What can be seen clearly is the word "GOLD" on both fragments, and a partial model number that looks like "AR-9" or possibly "AP-9".

One of the images appears to show a "USB - C" port, its plastic cover peeled back. Three decorative grooves can also been seen.

These indicators seem to point to a model called the Rugged Pager AR-924, made by the Taiwan-based Gold Apollo Company Ltd.

It's not yet clear whether one specific model of pager, or a number of different models, exploded in Lebanon today.