Japanese firm Icom says that it had stopped producing the model of radios reportedly used in recent blasts in Lebanon around 10 years ago.
Hand-held radios used by Hezbollah detonated on Wednesday across Lebanon’s south, after similar explosions of the group’s pagers the day before. Images of the exploded walkie-talkies showed labels with “ICOM” and “made in Japan.”
“The IC-V82 is a handheld radio that was produced and exported, including to the Middle East, from 2004 to October 2014. It was discontinued about 10 years ago, and since then, it has not been shipped from our company,” Icom says in a statement.
The fresh wave of explosions that ripped across Lebanon on Wednesday afternoon mainly targeted hand-held radios used by Hezbollah members, a day after thousands were wounded when their pagers spontaneously exploded in a coordinated attack widely blamed on Israel after months of cross-border fire.
Meanwhile, Israeli authorities are looking into whether “emergency warning” text messages instructing thousands of Israelis to immediately enter their bomb shelters were sent by Iranian-linked actors, according to the Kan public broadcaster.
The IDF meanwhile clarifies that it didn’t send out the messages, which misspell the Hebrew term for a safe room and include a suspicious hyperlink.