BEIRUT: Uber driver Hussein Khalil was battling traffic in Beirut when he found himself in the Gaza Strip -- according to his online map, anyway -- as location jamming blamed on Israel disrupts life in Lebanon.
"We've been dealing with this problem a lot for around five months," said Khalil, 36. "Sometimes we can't work at all," the disgruntled driver said on Beirut's chaotic, car-choked streets. "Of course, we are losing money."
For months, whacky location data on apps have caused confusion in Lebanon, where the Israel and Lebanese group Hezbollah have been engaged in cross-border clashes.
The near-daily exchanges started after Palestinians launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7.
In March, Beirut lodged a complaint with the United Nations about "attacks by Israel on Lebanese sovereignty in the form of jamming the airspace around" the Beirut airport.
Khalil showed screenshots of apps displaying his locations not only in the Gazan city of Rafah -- around 300 kilometres away -- but also in east Lebanon near the Syrian border, when he was actually in Beirut.
Numerous residents have reported their online map location as appearing at Beirut airport while they were actually elsewhere in the capital.
Israel has taken measures to disrupt Global Positioning System (GPS) functionality for the group and other opponents.
The cross-border exchanges have killed more than 490 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters, with 26 people killed in northern Israel. Fears have grown of all-out conflict between the foes that last went to war in 2006.
Lebanon's civil aviation chief Fadi El-Hassan said that since March, the body has asked pilots flying in or out of Beirut to "rely on ground navigation equipment and not on GPS signals due to the ongoing interference in the region". Ground navigation equipment is typically used as a back-up system.
Hassan expressed frustration that "in this technological age, a pilot who wants to land at our airport cannot use GPS due to Israeli enemy interference".
Lebanon is ensuring "the maintenance of ground navigation equipment at all times in order to provide the necessary signals for pilots to land safely," he said. — AFP
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