Caretaker Telecoms Minister Johnny Corm during his tour of Beirut's southern suburbs on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Credit: X account of the Telecoms Ministry)
Caretaker Telecoms Minister Johnny Corm visited the southern suburbs of Beirut to inspect the Ogero telephone exchange (the office that manages fixed-line telephones and Internet in Lebanon) damaged by an Israeli strike in the Mrayjeh district. At a press briefing after the visit, he stressed that the building, “one of the most important to have been hit by an Israeli strike,” was still standing, although the cable networks had been damaged or severed.
He also said that the Ministry's teams are working “to repair the damage caused by the Israeli attacks on telecommunications in the southern suburbs of Beirut.” The Minister added that several “relay stations” of the two mobile operators, Alfa and Touch, deactivated by the strikes, had been put back into service. “The number of out-of-service relays has been reduced from 56 to 15 for Touch and from 27 to 8 for Alfa, and the Ministry is working to restart the remaining stations as soon as possible,” he said.
Also present, Hezbollah MP Ibrahim Moussawi indicated that the Minister would shortly be inspecting other exchanges damaged or destroyed by Israel, notably in Nabatieh and Sour, in southern Lebanon, and in Baalbeck, in the Bekaa.
Israeli bombardments, engaged against Hezbollah since Oct. 8, 2023 in a conflict that radically escalated at the end of September, have caused at least $32 billion in material damage, according to a World Bank interim assessment not covering the month of November. A precarious cease-fire was agreed on Nov. 27.