The president and founder of a Taiwanese pager company linked to the detonation of thousands of pagers targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon was questioned by prosecutors late into the night on Thursday, then released.

Israel’s operation against Hezbollah members in Lebanon and Syria through booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkies was years in the making, and its use now ramped up a high-risk campaign aimed at deeply disrupting the group.

Hezbollah and Israel have traded blows in recent days, as the conflict has escalated with few off-ramps in sight to avoid total war.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant did say on Wednesday, however, that his country's war with Iran's so-called proxy groups in the region had entered a "new phase," announcing a shift to the north of Israel after 11 months of intense conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Hezbollah pounded northern Israel with 140 rockets Friday, a day after the militant group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed to retaliate against Israel for a mass bombing attack, the Israeli military and the militant group said.

Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV reported explosions in multiple areas of Lebanon, and a Hezbollah official told The Associated Press that walkie-talkies used by the group exploded as part of blasts heard in Beirut.

Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV reported explosions in multiple areas of Lebanon, which it said were the result of walkie-talkies detonating.

The AR-924 pager, advertised as "rugged," contains a rechargeable lithium battery and could receive texts of up to 100 characters. It also claimed to have up to 85 days of battery life, crucial in Lebanon, where electricity outages are commonplace following years of economic collapse.

Israel’s Mossad spy agency is believed to be behind the operation, Chris Stevenson writes, which likely took months of planning

The explosions linked to the electronic devices killed at least 20 people and injured more than 450 across Lebanon on Wednesday, a day after 12 people were killed and thousands wo