GHAZIYEH, Lebanon: Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli air strikes killed two people in the south on Friday, with Israel announcing attacks in the same areas targeting Hezbollah militants.
Despite a November 27 ceasefire that sought to halt more than a year of conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, Israel has continued to conduct near-daily strikes in Lebanon.
An Israeli attack on “a car on the Sidon-Ghaziyeh road resulted in one dead,” a Lebanese health ministry statement said on the fourth straight day of Israeli attacks in the south.
Hours later, the ministry said another Israeli strike on a vehicle around Aita Al-Shaab had also killed one.
Israel’s military said it had “conducted a precise strike in the area of Sidon and eliminated the Hezbollah terrorist Muhammad Jaafar Mannah Asaad Abdallah.”
It said Abdallah was “responsible, among other things, for the deployment of Hezbollah’s communication systems throughout Lebanon.”
On Friday evening, it announced “a Hezbollah terrorist was struck and eliminated by the IDF (military) in the area of” Aita Al-Shaab.
An AFP journalist said the Israeli attack in Sidon had hit a four-wheel-drive vehicle, sending a column of black smoke into the sky.
At the scene of the strike, members of the security forces stood guard as a crowd gathered to look at the charred remains of the vehicle after firefighters had put out the blaze.
The Israeli military has also said it was behind other attacks this week that it said killed Hezbollah members.
Hezbollah, significantly weakened by the war, insists it is adhering to the November ceasefire, even as Israeli attacks persist.
Lebanon says two killed in Israeli strikes in south
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Lebanon says two killed in Israeli strikes in south
- An Israeli attack on “a car on the Sidon-Ghaziyeh road resulted in one dead,” a Lebanese health ministry statement said
- Hours later another Israeli strike on a vehicle around Aita Al-Shaab had also killed one
’We can’t make ends meet’: civil servants protest in Ankara
- Some 800 civil servants from the Confederation of Public Employees’ Unions joined a march to the labor ministry
- “The increase in rents is almost three times higher than the pay rise we received,” Kocak told demonstrators
ANKARA: Hundreds of angry civil servants marched through Ankara Wednesday demanding a realistic pay rise as they battle poverty amid the soaring prices and double-digit inflation.
Some 800 civil servants from the Confederation of Public Employees’ Unions (KESK) joined a march to the labor ministry in the Turkish capital, carrying banners demanding an immediate pay rise.
“The increase in rents is almost three times higher than the pay rise we received, meaning our salaries are not even enough to cover the rent increases alone,” Ayfer Kocak, KESK’s co-chair, told demonstrators outside the ministry.
“We are experiencing growing poverty and insecurity.”
Turkiye’s annual inflation rate fell to 30.89 percent in December from 44.38 percent a year earlier, official figures showed, but independent economists and unions say real numbers remain much higher.
According to December figures released by the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (TURK-IS), the absolute minimum needed to feed a family of four was just over 30,000 liras ($690).
At the same time, Turkiye’s poverty threshold — the sum required to cover the basic needs for a family of that size — had risen to 98,000 liras ($2,270), it said.
Food inflation approached 43 percent annually, it added.
- ‘We can’t make ends meet’ -
“The government is condemning civil servants to live in degrading conditions by relying on misleading data” from the official statistics agency TUIK, Tulay Yildirim, head of a local teachers’ union branch, told AFP.
“We workers’ voices to be heard, saying we can no longer make ends meet and want to receive our fair share of a budget created through taxes paid by all citizens,” she added.
Earlier this month, public sector wages were hiked by 18.6 percent for the next six months, an increase unions said was insufficient.
“There are not only workers here, but also pensioners. The salary increase granted falls below the poverty line,” said Osman Seheri, head of a local branch of the municipal workers’ union.
“We cannot even afford proper clothes to go to work, let alone a suit and tie. With such wages, it is impossible to live in a major city.”
According to the independent Inflation Research Group (ENAG), which challenges the official data, annual inflation in Turkiye reached 56.14 percent in December 2025, with prices rising 2.11 percent in December alone.
