Lebanon files UN complaint against Israel over pager attacks

GENEVA (AFP): Lebanon said Wednesday that it had filed a complaint with the United Nations’ labor agency over deadly attacks on communication devices across the country in September, which it blames on Israel.

Lebanese Labor Minister Mustafa Bayram called the attack an “egregious war against humanity, against technology, against work,” saying his country had filed the complaint with the International Labor Organization in Geneva.

“It’s a very dangerous precedent,” he told journalists in the Swiss city at an event organized by the UN correspondents’ association ACANU.

The move comes after Israel escalated its air raids on Hezbollah strongholds in south Lebanon, Beirut and the eastern Bekaa Valley on September 23, after nearly a year of cross-border fire, and a week later sent ground troops into southern Lebanon.

The escalation kicked off with sabotage attacks on pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah, which killed dozens of people and injured thousands more across Lebanon.

Israel has not officially taken responsibility for those attacks, but Bayram said it was “widely accepted internationally… that Israel was behind this heinous act.”

“In a few minutes, more than 4,000 civilians fell, between martyrs and injured and maimed,” he said, speaking through a translator.

Among the victims not killed, he said many people had “lost their fingers; some have totally lost their eyesight.”

“We are in a situation where ordinary objects, objects you use in daily life, become dangerous and lethal,” he said.

“If left unchecked, this crime could become normalized,” he said, adding that filing the complaint was meant “to prevent such crimes from happening in the future.”

“I consider it a moral obligation to my country and to the world.”

‘Myriad of complaints’

Asked why Lebanon had chosen to file the complaint with the ILO, Bayram pointed to all the workers who were on the job when pagers and walkie-talkies– tools they used to do their work – suddenly exploded.

“We deemed it necessary to point out that this runs contrary to work environment, security and safety, contrary to decent work principles… defended by the ILO,” he said.

He added that Lebanese authorities could still file complaints over the pager attacks in other international forums, including the World Trade Organization.

“In more general terms, the Lebanese government wants to… present a myriad of complaints” against Israel over its operations in the country, he said, since “the amount of crimes is huge.”

More than 3,000 people have been killed in Lebanon since clashes between Hezbollah and Israel began in October 2023, according to the health ministry, including at least 1,964 since September 23, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

The war has also pushed more than a million people to flee their homes.