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Israel ‘spoofs’ GPS signals, endangering flight safety amid Gaza war: Report

A view of Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut, Lebanon (Photo by AP)

Israel has reportedly been manipulating the signals of the US-based Global Positioning System (GPS) to deceive navigation systems, endangering civil aviation since the beginning of a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

The GPS spoofing, which sends false location signals to satellites, has resulted in the listing of planes, people and even ships that are hundreds of miles from Lebanon in Beirut's international airport, the National Public Radio (NPR) reported. 

The GPS spoofing acts “are intended to deter rockets and missiles but are at the same time increasing risks for airline passengers while forcing pilots and ship captains to abandon automated safety systems developed over decades.”

Todd Humphreys, a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, said he and his students have traced the false signals to “a particular air base run by the Israeli military” in the occupied territories.

"I like to say that spoofing is the new jamming. Instead of just jamming the signals and breaking the links with GPS satellites, they're spoon-feeding them false signals,” he added.

Meanwhile, Mohammed Aziz, a consultant to Lebanon's Middle East Airlines and a retired airline captain, said unlike jamming, pilots can easily mistake spoofed signals for real ones.

"You don't have a warning on the aircraft that the signal is spoofed," he asserted.

Aziz further noted that the loss of reliably accurate GPS signals has prompted pilots to return to practices half a century old, such as reporting location points on the ground.

Earlier, the Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari acknowledged that the regime is disrupting GPS signals.

Lebanon also announced that it will lodge a complaint with the United Nations Security Council against Israel for disrupting its navigation systems in violation of the country’s sovereignty.

Israel waged its brutal aggression against Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

The Tel Aviv regime has so far killed at least 34,305 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 77,293 others.

Israel has also been exchanging deadly fire with Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement.


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