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Lebanon says Israel disrupting navigation systems around airport

Lebanon will lodge a complaint against Israel at the U.N. Security Council accusing it of disrupting navigation systems and civil aviation around Beirut airport, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

Since the Gaza war erupted in October, Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, has been exchanging near-daily cross-border fire with the Israeli army.

Lebanon will "submit an urgent complaint to the U.N. Security Council about Israel... disrupting navigation systems and civil aviation safety" in the skies around Beirut airport since the start of the Gaza war, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on the official NNA news agency.

The ministry statement condemned "Israel's deliberate policy of jamming air and ground navigation systems, and deliberately disrupting devices receiving and transmitting signals."

It did not provide further details of the disruption.

On January 7, the departures and arrivals screens at Beirut airport came under cyberattack, with media airing footage showing anti-Hezbollah messages displayed instead and baggage conveyor belts that had ground to a halt.

Those behind the airport hack have yet to be unmasked, with caretaker Public Works and Transportation Minister Ali Hamieh admitting Lebanon lacks cybersecurity expertise.

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October, at least 323 people, mainly Hezbollah fighters but also 56 civilians, have been killed in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally.

In Israel, at least 10 soldiers and seven civilians have been killed in the cross-border exchanges according to the Israeli army.

Source: Agence France Presse


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