Second wave of blasts across Lebanon rocks Hezbollah: All you need to know

Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib expressed his fear of a potential war with Israel in a CNN interview on Thursday after Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies exploded in Lebanon on Wednesday.

Speaking with CNN's Christine Amanpour, Habib emphasized, “There is no doubt it is a scary moment, and we are afraid of a coming war because we don't want a war.” He further explained that while “there were skirmishes on the border,” which “sometimes escalated, now we are talking about the beginning of a war."

"That's why we're going to the UN Security Council to stop this. We are against war in Lebanon. The government of Lebanon does not want war and does not even want the skirmishes in the south of Lebanon," Habib continued.

Hungary-based pagers manufacturing company BAC Consulting, which manufactured the pagers that exploded across Lebanon on Tuesday, was an Israeli shell company, the New York Times reported on Thursday, citing three intelligence officers.

The three officers further said that an additional two shell companies were created, which, the NYT noted, assisted in hiding the identities of those involved in manufacturing the pagers.

The report explained that while the company did produce regular pagers for other clients, those manufactured for Hezbollah were “produced separately, they contained batteries laced with explosive.”

Taiwan's national security team is "paying great attention" to the detonation of thousands of pagers targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon after a Taiwanese firm was linked to the pagers' production, the island's defense minister said on Thursday.

Taiwan-based Gold Apollo said it did not manufacture the devices used in the attack, and that they were made by a Budapest-based company which has a license to use its brand.

Speaking to reporters in Taipei, Taiwan Defence Minister Wellington Koo said the government was closely watching developments.

Chair of urban warfare studies at West Point, John Spencer, expressed his amazement regarding the strategy behind the recent cyberattack on Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon after analyzing the incident in a thread of Wednesday X/Twitter posts. 

The attack on Tuesday involved the explosion of pagers used for communication among the terror group, injuring an estimated 4,000 people and killing 11.

The following day, another wave of explosions across Lebanon injured an additional 500 and resulted in 20 deaths, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry late Wednesday night report. 

Japan's Icom stated that it was not possible to confirm whether the radio product reportedly related to the Lebanon explosions was shipped by their company.

Additionally, Icom noted that batteries that were required to operate the device, for which sales were discontinued about ten years ago, have also already been discontinued.

"Our products exported overseas have undergone strict regulatory processes set by the Japanese government," the company added. 

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told his US counterpart Secretary of State Lloyd Austin of Israel's intentions to operate in Lebanon days prior to explosions throughout the country, according to a CNN report, citing three sources familiar with the subject. 

On a Monday phone call, Gallant told Austin the possibility for an agreement in the North was passing.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, in a speech about the situation in the North, explicitly complimented the Mossad, along with the entire defense establishment, for "great achievements" just as the region continued to convulse with news of devices exploding across Lebanon.

Radios manufactured by Japanese firm ICOM reportedly were among the devices exploding in Lebanon on Wednesday, according to reports first shared with The Jerusalem Post by Bernie News and then confirmed by New York Times journalist Christiaan Triebert over social media. 

Additional Hezbollah beepers exploded in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, according to a Kan report. 

This comes after thousands of Hezbollah members were wounded on Tuesday after the pagers they used to communicate detonated on Tuesday. 

This is a developing story.