GENEVA: A Lebanese government minister said Wednesday his country was filing a complaint against Israel at the UN’s labor organization over the string of deadly attacks involving exploding pagers, saying workers were among those killed and injured.
The explosions in mid-September were widely blamed on Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied involvement. The blasts killed at least 37 people, including two children, wounded more than 3,000 and deeply unsettled even Lebanese who have no Hezbollah affiliation.
Lebanese Labor Minister Moustafa Bayram said he traveled to Geneva to formally file the complaint against Israel at the International Labor Organization, a sprawling UN agency that brings together governments, businesses and workers.
Bayram said the casualty count was even higher than first reported, saying “more than 4,000 civilians fell — between martyrs and injured and maimed — in a few minutes by this attack.”
“This method of warfare and conflicts may open the way for many who are evading international humanitarian law to adopt this method of warfare,” the minister told reporters at the UN compound in Geneva.
“It’s a very dangerous precedent, if not condemned,” he said. “We are in a situation where ordinary objects — objects used in daily life — become dangerous and lethal.”
Speaking in Arabic, Bayram insisted that ILO conventions guarantee the safety and security of workers, who “were in their workplace and had their pagers or walkies-talkies exploding all of a sudden,” according to an interpreter.
“I do not know where the outcome (of the complaint) will go, but at least we raised our voices to say and warn against this dangerous approach that strikes at human relations and leads to more conflicts,” he added.
An ILO spokeswoman said she was not immediately aware of the complaint or what redress might be possible through it.
Lebanon files complaint against Israel at UN labor body over deadly pager explosions, minister says
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Lebanon files complaint against Israel at UN labor body over deadly pager explosions, minister says
- Lebanese Labor Minister Moustafa Bayram said he traveled to Geneva to formally file the complaint against Israel at the International Labor Organization
- Bayram said the casualty count was even higher than first reported
On the radio and online, Palestinians keep up with Israel’s West Bank roadblocks
- Israeli obstacles to Palestinians’ movement in the West Bank have proliferated since the 2023 start of the war in Gaza
- In early 2025 there were 849 obstacles restricting the movement of Palestinians in the West Bank, including checkpoints, road gates, earth walls, trenches and roadblocks
RAWABI: Radio presenter Hiba Eriqat broadcasts an unusual kind of traffic reports to her Palestinian listeners grappling with ever-increasing Israeli checkpoints and roadblocks across the occupied West Bank.
“Deir Sharaf: traffic, Qalandia: open, Container: closed,” Eriqat reads out from drivers’ live reports, enumerating checkpoints to let listeners know which of the West Bank’s hundreds of checkpoints and gates are open, busy with traffic, or closed by the Israeli military.
“My mission is to help Palestinian citizens get home safely,” she told AFP in the radio studio in the city of Rawabi between her thrice-hourly broadcasts.
“Covering traffic in the West Bank is completely different from covering traffic anywhere else in the world.”
The West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has long been dotted with checkpoints, but obstacles to Palestinians’ movement in the territory have proliferated since the 2023 start of the war in Gaza — a separate territory.
In the West Bank, a territory roughly the size of the US state of Delaware, there are hundreds of new checkpoints and gates, but Israeli authorities do not provide updates about their status.
“The army might suddenly close a checkpoint, and the traffic jam would last an hour. Or they might just show up and then withdraw seconds later, and the checkpoint is cleared,” Eriqat said.
The UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in early 2025 there were 849 obstacles restricting the movement of Palestinians in the West Bank, including checkpoints, road gates, earth walls, trenches and roadblocks.
Updates on WhatsApp groups
To navigate, Palestinians often rely on minute-by-minute updates from drivers on WhatsApp and Telegram groups, some of which were created by Basma Radio to feed Eriqat’s broadcasts.
“We turned to taxi drivers, truck drivers, private companies and even ordinary people,” said Eriqat, to create the West Bank’s only traffic report of its kind.
The updates were launched in October 2023 — the same month the Gaza war broke out — and are now broadcast by other Palestinian radio stations too.
A Telegram group run by Basma Radio now has some 16,000 members.
Fatima Barqawi, who runs news programs at the station, said the team had created “contact networks with people on the roads,” also receiving regular updates from Palestinians who live near checkpoints and can see the traffic from their window.
Beyond the restrictions imposed by the Israeli authorities, the traffic reports sometimes feature warnings about roads blocked by Israeli settlers, whose attacks against Palestinians have also risen throughout the war.
It is a constantly shifting roadscape, Eriqat said, complicating even what otherwise should have been a quick drive to work, home or to see family and friends.
“You might tell people the checkpoint is open now, but three minutes later, it’s jammed again. And it’s not a regular jam — it could last six or seven hours,” she said.
Safe journey ‘not guaranteed’
Maen, a 28-year-old video editor, used to tune in to Basma Radio to plan his weekly commute from Ramallah to his hometown of Bethlehem, but now prefers checking what other drivers have to say.
“I often call a friend who has Telegram while I’m on the road” and ask for updates from checkpoints, said Mazen, who asked to use his first name only for security reasons.
He has deleted Telegram from his own phone after hearing about Palestinians getting into trouble with soldiers at checkpoints over the use of the messaging app.
But in a sign of its popularity, one group in which drivers share their updates has 320,000 members — more than one-tenth of the West Bank’s population.
Rami, an NGO worker living in Ramallah who also declined to give his full name, said he listened to the radio traffic reports but mainly relied on Telegram groups.
Yet a safe journey is far from guaranteed.
Rami told AFP he recently had to stop on the way to his hometown of Nablus.
“I pulled over, checked the news and saw that 100 settlers had gathered at a settlement’s road junction and started throwing stones at Palestinian cars,” recognizable by their green license plates, he said.
And passing through a military checkpoint often “depends on the soldier’s mood,” said Eriqat.
“That’s the difficult part.”
Syria, Libya resume direct flights after 10-year halt due to political turmoil
- Syrian Civil Aviation Authority says Syrian Airlines will operate direct flights from next week
- Move will help Syrians return home following collapse of Assad regime late last year, authority says
LONDON: The Syrian Arab Republic announced the resumption of direct flights to Libya after a pause of more than 10 years due to security and political turmoil in both countries.
The head of the Syrian Civil Aviation Authority, Ashhad Al-Sulaibi, said that Syrian Airlines will operate direct flights starting next week from Damascus and Aleppo to the Libyan cities of Tripoli and Benghazi.
He added that the move will help to reconnect Syria with its communities abroad and help Syrians to return to their homes following the collapse of the Assad regime last December.
Commercial flights between Syria and Libya were halted over 10 years ago due to political turmoil and civil armed conflicts that engulfed both countries in 2011.
Israel grabs Palestinian land near Ramallah to expand settler outpost
- The Palestinian Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission says Israeli authorities have incorporated the newly seized area into the Malakhi HaShalom outpost
- More than 700,000 settlers live in the occupied West Bank, where the Israelis have maintained a military occupation since June 1967
LONDON: The Palestinian Authority’s settlement activity watchdog reported that Israeli authorities on Monday seized 77.4 hectares of land in northeastern Ramallah, the administrative capital in the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission said that the land in the villages of Al-Mughayir and Jabait was declared “state land” to justify its seizure on Monday.
The commission added that Israeli authorities have incorporated the newly captured area into the Malakhi HaShalom outpost, an illegal Israeli settlement established in 2015 on land belonging to the village of Al-Mughayir. The Israeli far-right government in 2023 announced a plan to legalize Malakhi HaShalom and expand its territory.
The commission reported that the total Israeli land grab, designated as “state land” since early 2023, is estimated at 6,381 hectares, or 25,824 dunams, a measurement used by Palestinians since the Ottoman era.
More than 700,000 settlers live in the West Bank, where the Israeli government has maintained a military occupation since June 1967. The expansion of settlements has long been viewed as an obstacle to the establishment of a Palestinian state and the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Houthis claim attack on bulk carrier Magic Seas, which is sinking in Red Sea
- Magic Seas attack raised fears of a renewed Houthi campaign against shipping that could again draw in US and Western forces to the area
DUBAI: Israel’s military launched airstrikes early Monday targeting ports and facilities held by the Houthis, who responded with missile fire targeting Israel.
The strikes came after the Houthis attacked a Liberian-flagged ship in the Red Sea that caught fire and took on water, later forcing its crew to abandon the vessel. On Monday afternoon, they claimed the attack, which saw missiles and explosive-carrying drone boats set the vessel ablaze in the Red Sea.
The Magic Seas attack raised fears of a renewed Houthi campaign against shipping that could again draw in US and Western forces to the area, particularly after US President Donald Trump’s administration targeted the militia in a major airstrike campaign.
The ship attack comes at a sensitive moment in the Middle East, as a possible ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war hangs in the balance, and as Iran weighs whether to restart negotiations over its nuclear program following American airstrikes targeting its most sensitive atomic sites during an Israeli war against the Islamic Republic.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also was traveling to Washington to meet with Trump.
Israeli strikes target Houthi-held ports
The Israeli military said that it struck Houthi-held ports at Hodeida, Ras Isa and Salif, as well as the Ras Kanatib power plant. It released footage showing an F-16 launching from Israel for the strike, which came after the Israeli military issued a warning for the area.
“These ports are used by the Houthi terrorist regime to transfer weapons from the Iranian regime, which are employed to carry out terrorist operations against the state of Israel and its allies,” the Israeli military said.
The Israeli military also said it struck the Galaxy Leader, a vehicle-carrying vessel that the Houthis seized back in November 2023 when they began their attacks in the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war.
“Houthi forces installed a radar system on the ship and have been using it to track vessels in the international maritime arena to facilitate further terrorist activities,” the Israeli military said.
The Bahamas-flagged Galaxy Leader was affiliated with an Israeli billionaire. It said that no Israelis were on board. The ship had been operated by a Japanese firm, NYK Line.
The Houthis acknowledged the strikes, but offered no damage assessment from the attack. Their military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, claimed its air defense forces “effectively confronted” the Israelis without offering evidence.
Israel has repeatedly attacked Houthi areas in Yemen, including a naval strike in June. Both Israel and the United States have struck ports in the area in the past — including an American attack that killed 74 people in April — but Israel is now acting alone in attacking the Houthis as they continue to fire missiles at Israel.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened to launch further strikes.
“What’s true for Iran is true for Yemen,” Katz said in a statement. “Anyone who raises a hand against Israel will have it cut off. The Houthis will continue to pay a heavy price for their actions.”
The Houthis then responded with an apparent missile attack on Israel. The Israeli military said that it attempted to intercept the two missiles launched by the Houthis, but they appeared to make impact, though no injuries have been reported. Sirens sounded in the West Bank and along the Dead Sea.
Saree on Monday claimed to launch missiles and drones targeting Israel in its attack.
“We are fully prepared for a sustained and prolonged confrontation, to confront hostile warplanes and to counter attempts to break the naval blockade imposed by our armed forces on the enemy,” Saree said.
Ship attack forces crew to abandon vessel
The attack on the Magic Seas, a bulk carrier heading north to Egypt’s Suez Canal, happened about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Hodeida, Yemen, which is held by the Houthis.
The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, or UKMTO, center first said that an armed security team on the vessel had returned fire against an initial attack of gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades, though the vessel later was struck by projectiles.
Ambrey, a private maritime security firm, said that the Magic Seas also had been attacked by bomb-carrying drone boats, which could be a major escalation. It said that two drone boats struck the ship, while another two had been destroyed by the armed guards on board.
UKMTO said the ship was taking on water and its crew had abandoned the vessel. They were rescued by a passing ship, it added.
A European Union anti-piracy patrol in the region, called Operation Atalanta, said that 22 mariners had been on board the Magic Seas.
Saree, the Houthi spokesman, claimed the attack and said the militia used missiles and bomb-carrying drone boats to attack the ship.
“Our operations continue in targeting the depths of the Israeli entity in occupied Palestine, as well as preventing Israeli maritime navigation in the Red and Arabian Seas ... until the aggression on Gaza stops and the siege on it is lifted,” Saree said.
The Magic Seas’ owners didn’t respond to a request for comment.
UN airdrops food aid in S.Sudan to people hit by conflict
- Across South Sudan, 7.7 million people, or 57 percent of the population, face “crisis, emergency or catastrophic” levels of hunger
NAIROBI: The World Food Programme said Monday it had airdropped food aid to help tens of thousands of people in remote parts of South Sudan where surging conflict has pushed some communities “to the brink of famine.”
The unstable east African nation has seen a drastic uptick in violence since simmering rivalry between President Salva Kiir and his vice president Riek Machar boiled over into open hostilities in March.
The tensions raised fears of a return to full-scale war in the impoverished country, the world’s youngest, where a civil war killed some 400,000 people in 2013-2018.
“These distributions mark WFP’s first access in over four months to deliver life-saving food and nutrition assistance to more than 40,000 people... in the most remote parts of Nasir and Ulang counties, areas only accessible by air,” the United Nations agency said in a statement.
More than one million people across Upper Nile state — which borders war-torn Sudan — face acute hunger, including over 32,000 people already experiencing “catastrophic” levels of hunger, the WFP warned, adding the figure had tripled since conflict flared, triggering mass displacement.
Fighting has blocked main river routes, which are the most cost-effective way to reach large swathes of Upper Nile and northern Jonglei state to deliver assistance, the UN agency added.
Across South Sudan, 7.7 million people, or 57 percent of the population, face “crisis, emergency or catastrophic” levels of hunger, it said.
A funding shortfall has forced the WFP to prioritize assistance with reduced rations for only the most vulnerable 2.5 million people.
The agency has appealed for $274 million to continue life-saving operations through December.
