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No chance for drivers: Because Israel interferes with GPS signals, maps have often been displayed incorrectly since the start of the war.
Photo: Rami Amichay / REUTERS
Israel is reportedly expanding targeted interference with GPS use. The cities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem have also been affected for several days, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Thursday. Satellite navigation systems were being deliberately disrupted, the paper reported, citing the Israeli army. In recent months, GPS jamming has already occurred in the north and south of the country to thwart drone attacks by Hezbollah and Hamas. Now the outages are reportedly increasing in the center of the country.
Fear of retaliation
Israeli media suspects that threats from Iran are the reason for the expansion of the GPS jamming. After a suspected Israeli airstrike on an Iranian embassy building in Syria's capital Damascus that left several people dead, Iran announced retaliation. Monday's attack killed two brigadier generals and five other members of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The IRGC is Iran's elite military force and is considered more powerful than its conventional armed forces.
The military had previously stopped vacations for all combat units of the Israeli army and mobilized missile defense reservists. There is therefore growing concern among the population about a conflict with Iran or an expansion of the war with the militia Hezbollah, which is protected by Iran. To dispel the rumors circulating, Israel's military announced on Thursday that there was no need to make any special private arrangements for war.
The newspaper "Israel Hayom" reported on Thursday that numerous drivers in the center of the country were shown incorrect locations when navigating. Couriers from delivery services were located on Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.
According to the media, the GPS disruptions in the north of the country had already disrupted the online dating of people in the Israeli-Lebanese border area in the past. Lebanese users were shown profiles of people from Israel. Lebanon and Israel are officially at war. Since the beginning of the Gaza war after the massacre by the Islamist Hamas in Israel on October 7th, there have been daily, sometimes deadly, confrontations between Israel's army and militant groups in Lebanon.
muk/dpa