After thousands of buzzers and communication devices were detonated in two separate attacks in Lebanon – killing at least 37 people and injuring thousands more – questions remain about how such an operation was carried out.

Hezbollah blames Israel for the unprecedented attacks and vows revenge.

Mystery remains about the origin and construction of the communication devices.

Here are the unanswered questions:

How were the buzzers hacked?

As BBC News reports, initial speculation is that the buzzers could have been the target of a sophisticated hack that caused them to explode. But this theory was quickly dismissed by experts.

To cause damage on the scale it did, it is likely that explosives had been planted before entering Hezbollah’s possession, experts say.

Images of the broken remains of the buzzers show the logo of a small Taiwanese electronics manufacturer: Gold Apollo.

The BBC visited the company’s offices, located in a large business park in a suburb of Taipei.

The company’s founder, Hsu Ching-Kuang, looked shocked. He denied that the business had anything to do with the business.

“Look at the pictures from Lebanon,” he told reporters outside his company’s offices. “They don’t have any sign that says Made in Taiwan on them, we didn’t make these buzzers!” he added.

On the contrary – he pointed to a Hungarian company: BAC Consulting.

Mr. Hsu Ching-Kuang said that 3 years ago he had licensed the Gold Apollo trademark to BAC, allowing it to use the Gold Apollo name on its own buzzers.

He said the money transfers from BAC were “very strange” – and that there were problems with the payments, which had come from the Middle East.

What did a Hungarian company have to do with it?

The BBC went to the headquarters of BAC Consulting, located in a residential area of ​​the Hungarian capital, Budapest.

The address appeared to be the same as 12 other companies – and no one in the building could tell anything about BAC Consulting.

Officials in Hungary say the company, which was first established in 2022, was merely a “trading broker with no manufacturing or operating plant” in the country.

A brochure for BAC, posted on LinkedIn, lists 8 organizations it claims to have worked with – including the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID).

The UK Foreign Office told the BBC it was in the process of investigating. But based on initial conversations, he said he had no involvement with BAC.
BAC’s website listed one person as its CEO and founder – Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono.

The BBC made several attempts to contact Ms Bársony-Arcidiacono but was unable to reach her.

However, he reportedly spoke to NBC News, saying: “I don’t make the buzzers. I’m just the go-between.”

So who is really behind BAC Consulting?

The New York Times reported that Israeli intelligence was behind the company.

The newspaper, citing three Israeli officials, said two others shell companies they were created to help conceal the identities of the people who actually produced the buzzers: Israeli officers.

The BBC has been unable to independently verify these reports – but as the BBC reports – Bulgarian authorities have now begun investigating another company linked to BAC.

Bulgarian broadcaster bTV reported on Thursday that 1.6 million euros ($1.8 million, 1.3 million pounds) linked to the device attacks in Lebanon passed through Bulgaria and were later sent to Hungary.

How were the wireless hacked?

The origin of the radios, which exploded in the second wave of attacks, is less clear.

We know that at least some of the ones that exploded were the IC-V82 model produced by the Japanese company ICOM.

These devices were purchased by Hezbollah 5 months ago, according to a security source who spoke to the Reuters news agency.

Earlier, a sales executive at Icom’s U.S. subsidiary told the Associated Press news agency that the radios in Lebanon appeared to be products not manufactured by the company – adding that it was easy to find fake versions online.

It took the BBC a few seconds to find the Icom IC-V82s available for sale in online marketplaces.

ICOM said in a statement that it stopped manufacturing and selling the model nearly a decade ago, in October 2014 – and said it had also stopped producing the batteries needed to run it.

The company said it doesn’t outsource production overseas — and all of its wireless is made in a factory in Western Japan.

According to the Kyodo news agency, Icom director Yoshiki Enomoyo claimed that photos of the damage around the battery compartment of the exploding radios suggested they may have been rigged with explosives.

How were the devices triggered?

Videos show victims reaching into their pockets seconds before the devices detonate, wreaking havoc on streets, shops and homes across the country.

Lebanese authorities concluded that the devices were triggered by “electronic messages” sent to them, according to a letter from the Lebanese mission to the UN seen by Reuters.

Citing US officials, The New York Times reported that the bombers received messages that appeared to come from Hezbollah leadership before exploding. The messages appeared to “activate” the devices, the report said

It is not yet known what type of message was sent to the wireless.

Have other devices been sabotaged?

This is the question many in Lebanon are now asking – Other devices such as cameras, phones or laptops could also have been planted with explosives.

The Lebanese Army took to the streets of Beirut and using a remote controlled bomb disposal robot carried out controlled explosions.

BBC crews in Lebanon were stopped and told not to use their phones or cameras.

“Everyone is panicking… We don’t know if we can stay by our laptops, our phones. Everything looks like danger at this point and nobody knows what to do,” one woman, Ghida, told the BBC correspondent.

Why did the attack happen now?

There are several theories as to why the devices were detonated to explode this week.

One is that Israel chose this moment to send a message to Hezbollah, after nearly a year of escalating cross-border hostilities after Hezbollah fired rockets into or around northern Israel, a day after Hamas attacked the October 7.

The other is that Israel did not intend to implement its plan at this time, but was forced to do so after fearing that the plot was about to be exposed.

According to the US news agency Axios, the initial plan was to attack the bombers as a jump-start to an all-out war as a way to “hit” Hezbollah fighters.