TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Multiple explosions rang out Wednesday at the funeral site of three Hezbollah members and a child who were killed the day before by exploding pagers, Associated Press reporters at the scene said.

Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV reported explosions in several areas in Lebanon, which they said were caused by exploding walkie-talkies.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Below is the earlier AP story.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The beepers used by Hezbollah that exploded in an apparent Israeli attack were carried out by a company based in Hungary, another company said Wednesday as details of the mysterious operation emerged. The attack intensified a simmering conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that threatens to escalate into all-out war.

Pagers used by the militant group exploded almost simultaneously in Lebanon and Syria a day earlier, killing at least 12 people, including two children, and wounding about 2,800. Hezbollah and the Lebanese government blamed Israel.

A U.S. official said Israel informed the United States after the attack, which detonated small amounts of explosives hidden in pagers. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the information publicly.

The sophisticated attack revived fears that the Israel-Hamas movement war in Gaza could escalate into a broader regional conflict. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that the U.S. was still assessing how the attack could affect efforts to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza.

Hezbollah and Israeli forces have exchanged fire almost daily since Oct. 8, the day after a deadly Hamas-led attack in southern Israel sparked war. Hundreds of people have been killed in the attacks in Lebanon and dozens in Israel since then, while tens of thousands have been displaced on both sides of the border. Hamas and Hezbollah are allies and both are backed by Iran.

Despite periodic cycles of escalation, Hezbollah and Israel have carefully avoided all-out war. Yet Israeli leaders have issued a series of warnings in recent weeks that they could step up operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israel began sending more troops to the border with Lebanon on Wednesday as a precaution, an official familiar with the troop movements said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The AR-924 pagers used in Tuesday’s attack were manufactured by BAC Consulting KFT, based in the Hungarian capital Budapest, according to a statement from Gold Apollo, a Taiwanese firm that authorized the use of its brand on the pagers.

Hsu Ching-kuang, chairman of Gold Apollo, told reporters on Wednesday that the company has had a licensing agreement with BAC for the past three years.

“Under the cooperation agreement, we authorize BAC to use our brand for the sale of products in designated regions, but the design and production of the products are the sole responsibility of BAC,” Gold Apollo said in a statement.

BAC Consulting Kft. was registered as a limited liability company in May 2022, according to the data. It has 7,840 euros in fixed capital, the data shows, and had revenue of $725,768 in 2022 and $593,972 in 2023.

At the headquarters of a building in a residential area of ​​Budapest, the names of several companies, including BAC Consulting, are displayed on the window.

A woman who emerged from the building, who did not want to give her name, said the site houses the headquarters of several companies.

BAC’s parent company is registered to Cristiana Rosaria Bársony-Arcidiacono, who describes herself on her LinkedIn page as a strategic advisor and business developer. Among other roles, Bársony-Arcidiacono says on the page that she has served on the board of directors of the Earth Child Institute, a sustainability group. The group does not list Bársony-Arcidiacono as a board member on its website.

The Associated Press attempted to contact Bársony-Arcidiacono through her LinkedIn page but was unable to establish a connection between her or BAC and the exploding beepers.

The attack in Lebanon began on Tuesday afternoon when beepers became warm in the hands or pockets of their owners and then exploded, causing bloody scenes and panic among bystanders.

It turned out that most of those affected were members or had ties to members of Hezbollah — whether they were fighters or civilians — but it was not immediately clear whether people without ties to Hezbollah were also affected.

The Health Ministry said the dead included health workers and two children. In the Bekaa Valley village of Nadi Sheet, dozens of people gathered to mourn the death of one of the children, 9-year-old Fatima Abdullah.

Her mother, dressed in black and wearing a yellow Hezbollah scarf, wept along with other women and children as they gathered around the girl’s coffin for her funeral.

Hezbollah said in a statement Wednesday morning that it would continue its normal attacks on Israel as part of what it described as a support front for its ally Hamas and the Palestinians in Gaza.

“This path is continuous and separate from the difficult reckoning that the criminal enemy must face for his carnage on Tuesday,” it said. “This is another reckoning that will come, God willing.”

In Beirut hospitals, the chaos of the night before had largely disappeared on Wednesday, but relatives of the wounded continued to wait.

Lebanon’s Health Minister Firas Abiad told reporters during a tour of hospitals Wednesday morning that many of the wounded had serious eye injuries and others had limbs amputated. Journalists were not allowed to enter hospital rooms or film patients.

Abiad said the wounded had been sent to various hospitals in the area to prevent one hospital from becoming overloaded. Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Egypt had also offered to help treat the patients.

Earlier on Wednesday, an Iraqi military plane landed in Beirut with 15 tons of medicines and medical equipment, he said.

Experts believe that explosive material was placed in the pagers before they were delivered.

The AR-924 pager, which is advertised as “rugged,” contains a rechargeable lithium battery, according to specifications advertised on Gold Apollo’s website before being removed after the attack.

It claimed the battery would last up to 85 days, which would be crucial in Lebanon, where Power outages are common after years of economic collapse. Pagers also operate on a different wireless network than cell phones, making them more resilient in emergency situations. That’s one reason why many hospitals around the world still rely on them.

The pagers also provided Hezbollah with a way to circumvent intensive Israeli electronic surveillance of mobile phone networks in Lebanon.

“The phone we have in our hands – I don’t have a phone in my hands – is a listening device,” Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned in a speech in February.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs said Gold Apollo exported 260,000 sets of pagers from early 2022 to August 2024, including more than 40,000 sets between January and August this year. The ministry said it had no data on direct exports of Gold Apollo pagers to Lebanon.

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This story has been updated to correct the age of one of the murdered children. She was 9, not 8.

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Spike reported from Budapest and Mroue from Beirut. Associated Press journalists Abby Sewell and Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut; Simina Mistreanu in Taipei; Melanie Lidman and Josef Federman in Jerusalem; Zeke Miller in Washington; and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.