Dozens of people were killed and thousands more injured after two consecutive days of explosions across Lebanon this week that the Shia militant group Hezbollah has blamed on Israel.
Pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously on Tuesday afternoon, leaving at least 12 people dead, including two children.
On Wednesday, another wave of coordinated explosions affecting handheld radios killed at least 25 people. Almost 3,000 people were wounded in the attacks, Lebanon’s health ministry said.
Israel has not commented on the attack, but the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff said in a video after the explosions that Israel has “many more capabilities” to be used against Hezbollah.
Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate for the major security breach, with the group’s leader saying the attacks “could be considered war crimes or a declaration of war”.
Meanwhile, Bellingcat has identified a suspicious social media profile for a manager at BAC Consulting, the Hungarian firm under increasing scrutiny over its link to the exploding pagers.
Geolocating Tuesday’s Explosions
Bellingcat has verified and geolocated footage of the deadly blasts and their aftermath this week. Some occurred in Haret Hreik, a known Hezbollah stronghold south of Beirut.
Footage and images posted to social media showed devices exploding in people’s hands or on their hips. In one video taken from CCTV footage in a grocery store, a man with a satchel slung across his body is at a produce stand next to three other individuals.
The man’s satchel appears to explode and he collapses to the ground as the people around him flee. The man’s satchel, which can be seen towards the end of the video, is visibly damaged with the bottom section missing and the contents on the floor. Bellingcat geolocated the footage to the Yahay’s supermarket in Haret Hreik (33.854741, 35.501362).
According to Reuters, the detonations started about 3:30pm local time on Tuesday and continued for about an hour. A timestamp on the grocery store video supports this claim, with footage showing the detonation in the man’s satchel occurred at 3:30pm.
Multiple videos posted online show the moment of the explosions and aftermath. In some videos bloodied victims can be seen with missing fingers or severe injuries to their arms, face or thighs.
Some videos show Beirut hospital wards full with people reportedly brought in due to pager injuries. We geolocated one of these videos to Bahman Hospital (33.853555, 35.506011), also in the Haret Hreik area.
What We Know About the Pagers
Two images shared on X show what appear to be the remnants of pagers that exploded on Tuesday. Details in both photos give clues about the exact model of the pagers, though it cannot be ruled out that other models were also targeted.
In the photos, partial details of the back of the pager show the words “Distri”, “Model” and “Freq”. There is also a partial barcode. The “Distri” description is followed by “GOLD”, while the “Model” description is followed by partially visible letters “AR” and possibly the number nine. In one of the images, the “Freq” description is followed by the number four.
These labels indicate that the pagers were likely the Gold Apollo AR-924 Rugged Pager model. Gold Apollo is a Taiwanese company specialising in the production of wireless paging systems.
In a statement released on September 18, Gold Apollo said the exploded pagers were not produced in Taiwan. The company said it had established a long-term partnership with BAC Consulting, a Hungarian firm that was contracted to use its brand. “This model is produced and sold by BAC,” Gold Apollo said.
In turn, BAC Consulting denied any involvement, with its CEO Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono telling NBC News: “I don’t make the pagers. I am just the intermediate. I think you got it wrong.”
Bellingcat has been unable to reach Barsony-Arcidiacono and the company’s website is no longer accessible.
A Hungarian government spokesman said authorities had confirmed that BAC Consulting was a “trading intermediary” and that it had no manufacturing or operational sites in the country.
The New York Times, citing three intelligence officers, reported that the Budapest-based company was part of an Israeli front. It said the pagers were tampered with before they reached Lebanon.
The Profile Linked to BAC Consulting
Bellingcat has found content posted to social media by BAC Consulting’s CEO, which gives the name of a second person apparently associated with the company. But we were unable to reach this person and attempts to investigate their CV were met with dead ends.
Barsony-Arcidiacono uploaded a PDF to her LinkedIn page, dated Oct. 22, 2020, with a short biography of “Eric Hansen”, who is described as the consulting firm’s Business Development Manager.
However, the text appears to have been almost directly copied from a web page published two years earlier, which describes a different Erik (spelled with a k), who is employed by another company and based in Miami, Florida.
The PDF predated the incorporation of BAC Consulting in the Hungarian business registry, which took place on May 19, 2022. Furthermore, Bellingcat found no reference to Eric Hansen in BAC Consulting’s publicly available business registration records.
A LinkedIn profile under the name of Eric Hansen says he has worked for BAC Consulting in a “business development” role since April 2020, two years before the company was incorporated. The profile, which does not have any photos, says Hansen is based in Denmark.
Notably, some of the companies listed as employers of Hansen do not appear to exist.
For example, the LinkedIn profile says Hansen has also worked for PDC Consultancy since 2014.
On PDC Consultancy’s LinkedIn Page, it describes itself as a “well-established investment and consultancy firm” that has been in operation since 2011. The company claims to be based in Copenhagen, Denmark. However, there is no corresponding entry for it in the Danish Central Business Registry. The LinkedIn page has a link to a website, but this belongs to a different organisation, PDConsult, a farming and real estate company in Nigeria.
Bellingcat has found no link between PDC Consultancy and Eric Hansen outside of LinkedIn. Hansen, who is listed as a partner, appears to be the only person linked to this company on the social media platform.
Another role listed on the Eric Hansen LinkedIn profile is Program Manager at Jason Business Group, from 2009 to 2011. This entry does not link to a company page on LinkedIn, and the name is not registered in Danish or Hungarian business registries. There are no results for Jason Business Group using search engines.
The Hansen LinkedIn profile says he previously worked for HSBC and Deloitte, but no public link between this name and the multinational companies was identified. Both HSBC and Deloitte have been contacted for comment.
The profile also says Eric Hansen received a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from Copenhagen Business School. More than 600 theses were published in 2011 – the year of the purported graduation – but none appear to have been authored by a person with this name. A search of thousands of published student theses did not return any results for authors or co-authors under the name of Eric Hansen. Bellingcat contacted CBS by phone but received no relevant information by the time of publication.
Bellingcat did not receive a response to questions sent to the Eric Hansen LinkedIn profile. No other confirmed social media profiles associated with the LinkedIn page have been found.
The LinkedIn profile for Eric Hansen, identified via a post from BAC Consulting’s CEO, raises further questions about the Hungarian company.
Carlos Gonzales, Miguel Ramalho, Pooja Chaudhuri and Annique Mossou contributed research to this article.
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