– Three Lebanese Journalists Killed in Israeli Airstrike

– One Month Into the Expansion of Israel’s War on Lebanon

– Workers Picket the Office of South Africa’s Largest Defense Manufacturer

– Workers in Greece Mobilize Against Austerity, Announce General Strike in November

Three Lebanese Journalists Killed in Israeli Airstrike

In the early hours of October 25, an Israeli warplane targeted a guesthouse allocated for media crews in Lebanon’s southern town of Hasbaya while journalists within the house were still asleep. Three journalists were killed in the aerial attack, identified as Wissam Qassem, who worked for Al-Manar news network as a cameraman, Ghassan Najjar, a camera operator of Al Mayadeen Media Network, and his co-worker, broadcast engineer Mohamed Reda.

A number of other journalists were also injured in the attack, which accommodated at least 18 journalists from different local and international media outlets. These included MTV Lebanon, Sky News Arabia, Al Jazeera, Al Araby, Al-Qahira News, Al-Ghad TV, and TRT World, in addition to the crews of Al Mayadeen and Al-Manar.

Hours after the attack, the Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad announced that the death toll of Lebanese journalists killed by Israel since October 2023 has risen to 11, with eight others injured. Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the attack on Friday, describing it as a “new chapter of war crimes,” and accusing Israel of “deliberately targeting” media workers. “Israel’s goal is to intimidate the media to cover up the crimes it is committing,” Mikati said.

Lebanon’s Minister of Information Ziad Makary echoed Mikati’s accusation against Israel, stating, “This is an assassination with premeditated intent as there were 18 journalists present representing seven media institutions.”

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One Month Into the Expansion of Israel’s War on Lebanon

As of October 23, it had been one month since Israel announced the expansion of its aggression on Lebanon as part of what it called “Operation Arrows of the North.” The operation’s stated goals, according to Israel, are to destroy the capabilities of the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah, to secure Israel’s northern border, and to ensure a safe return of Israeli settlers to the north.

The systematic targeting of civilians across Lebanon, however, may also be an indicator that Israel is interested in ethnic cleansing of the people of the region. Its aggression was not limited to just southern Lebanon but also extended to the capital Beirut and other parts of the country. Israeli warplanes have even targeted areas close to Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport and the Al-Masnaa border crossing between Lebanon and Syria, along with hospitals and aid distribution centers.

Israel has once again proven that it enjoys impunity, which allows it to kill innocent people in a wholesale manner, displace them, widely destroy civil infrastructure, and target humanitarian workers and medics in full view of the world.

This brazen status has made many question if there is any line that Israel can’t cross. As Lebanese-American journalist Rania Khalek wrote, “So the world is going to sit by and let the settler psycho state of Israel tantrum bomb our beautiful ancient coastal city of Tyre/Sur so they can make south Lebanon unlivable? And then what? Where does this lead?”

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Workers Picket the Office of South Africa’s Largest Defense Manufacturer

Workers at Denel, South Africa’s largest manufacturer of defense equipment, picketed the corporation’s office in the town of Centurion on October 24, demanding a wage hike of 15 percent.

Except for an “insignificant” 4 percent increase last November, workers have had no wage hikes for the last five years, even as the cost of the household food basket went up by almost 68 percent in this period, from R3,184.63 in October 2019 to R5,348.65 in October 2024.

Consequently, “real wages have seen a dramatic decline,” said Phakamile Hlubi-Majola, spokesperson of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), which led this action.

NUMSA members are also demanding the reinstatement of the inconvenience allowance of R5000 for workers relocated to different cities and the immediate restart of contributions to the pension fund by Denel Vehicle Systems (DVS).

“These are all benefits that workers lost during the radical restructuring that the Department of Public Enterprise imposed during the COVID-19 lockdown,” reducing the workforce to 1,600 from 3,000 in 2019, Hlubi-Majola told Peoples Dispatch.

Drained by corrupt contracts and mismanagement, Denel plunged into a liquidity crisis in 2019, reportedly arriving at the “brink of collapse” by 2021.

Drawing parallels to the crisis in South African Airways (SAA) and the electricity producer Eskom, NUMSA’s Deputy General Secretary Mbuso Ngubane told workers on the picket line that the government is “deliberately destroying” State-Owned Entities (SOEs) to convince the public that their privatization is the only way forward.

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Workers in Greece Mobilize Against Austerity, Announce General Strike in November

Strikes swept through Greece the week of October 21 as workers protested austerity measures imposed by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s government. Workers demanded wage increases, strengthened collective bargaining agreements, and the reversal of public service reforms, especially in healthcare and education.

Actions across sectors, including hospitality, metalwork, transport, logistics, and education, are building momentum for the November 20 general strike, demonstrating frustration over deteriorating work and living conditions.

Ferry workers called on passengers to stand in solidarity, highlighting that they are currently operating with few teams and in substandard conditions.

Strikes disrupted major hotel services, halted ferry routes, and brought education workers to the streets. In the lead-up to the day of action, the Ministry of Education attempted to block primary education workers from going on strike with a court order. However, this only fueled anger among teachers and pushed workers from other parts of the sector to join. Finally, approximately 3,000 education workers marched through Athens, demanding wage hikes and respect for union activism, and expressing their support for Palestine.

Greek workers have consistently shown solidarity with Palestine, notably blocking arms shipments through ports. In mid-October, dockworkers at Athens’s Piraeus port blocked an ammunition container bound for Israel. Their message was clear: the government should prioritize social services and workers’ rights over war. In line with this, the All-Workers’ Militant Front announced that the theme of November’s general strike would be “Out of the war slaughterhouses; fund wages, health, and education instead.”

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