Israel's Mossad spy agency planted explosives in Hezbollah pagers, reports say

(This story was updated to add new information)

Israel's Mossad spy agency planted small amounts of explosive material in Hezbollah pagers that detonated across Lebanon, killing at least 12 people and injuring thousands, multiple reports said Wednesday.

A wave of coordinated blasts emanating from the handheld wireless communication devices took place Tuesday afternoon as people shopped for groceries, sat in cafes and drove in cars, leaving blood-splattered scenes.

Lebanon's government and Hezbollah, an Iran-backed group with headquarters in Beirut that appears close to fighting an all-out war with Israel , blamed Israel for orchestrating the operation that wounded nearly 3,000 people. Many of those injured are believed to be Hezbollah fighters who use the pagers because they are difficult to track.

Israel has not publicly commented on the attack or speculated who was behind it.

But Israeli and U.S. sources told the Reuters news agency and the New York Times that Israel carried out the operation by hiding explosive material within a batch of pagers that were imported into Lebanon.

The Times said Hezbollah ordered the pagers from a Taiwanese firm named Gold Apollo.

Gold Apollo denied in a written statement that it was involved in the production of the pagers. It said that it only licensed out its brand to a Hungarian company named by BAC Consulting KFT.

"The product was not ours. It was only that it had our brand on it," Gold Apollo founder and president, Hsu Ching-kuang, told reporters at the company's offices in the northern Taiwanese city of New Taipei, Reuters reported.

Gold Apollo said in its written statement that the pagers were produced and sold by BAC.

That firm, which appears to be based in Hungary's capital Budapest, could not immediately be reached for comment and a website belonging to the company also appeared to be offline on Wednesday.

Several sources told Reuters that Israel's plot was months in the making and the devices were modified at the production level. About 3,000 Hezbollah pagers detonated, Reuters reported, when a coded message was sent to them, simultaneously activating the explosives. USA TODAY could not independently confirm those reports.

Since Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, Israel and Hezbollah have swapped near-daily tit-for-tat strikes as the militant group has rallied to support its ally in Gaza. Israel has also undertaken targeted assassinations of senior Hezbollah commanders in Lebanon. Tens of thousands of Israelis who live near Lebanon's border have evacuated amid the exchanges. Israel has vowed to make it safe for them to return.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Israel's Mossad spy agency planted explosives in Hezbollah pagers, reports say