Making love not war in the Middle East

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Since the war in Gaza started over ten months ago, Israel and Hizbullah, an Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon, have exchanged almost daily rocket fire. As part of its response, Israel has been scrambling gps signals across the border region.

Its armed forces have been using “spoofing" technology to generate bogus signals to confuse satellites about where people are. Israel says this is to disrupt Hizbullah’s missile and drone attacks. But the fighters of Hizbullah are far from the only ones affected.

The spoofing is a pain for everyone. Order a pizza from your house in Beirut and your dinner might be sent to the airport. An Uber driver in the Lebanese capital might refuse to pick you up if you appear to be in Cyprus.

It has also thrown together two groups of unlikely singletons: Lebanese and Israelis on dating apps. Apps such as Tinder and Bumble use GPS to pair people up based on geographic proximity. Those close to the border have always found that the apps have scant regard for international frontiers.

But today even someone in Beirut may struggle to find a Lebanese match. A Lebanese newspaper reckoned earlier this year that in some places 60% of the profiles offered to Lebanese Tinder-users were in fact Israelis. Some are good-looking, muses Shadi, a gay Lebanese who did not want to give his second name.

“But when I see pictures of them in the army uniform, it makes me shudder." Others are intrigued. “I had never met or spoken with an Israeli," said Rania from the mostly Christian city of Jounieh. Curiosity, she admitted, has got the better of her.