Lebanese Labour Minister Mustafa Bayram called the attack an “egregious war against humanity, against technology, against work”, saying his country had filed the complaint with the International Labour Organization in Geneva.

The move comes after Israel escalated its air raids on Hezbollah strongholds in south Lebanon, Beirut and the eastern Bekaa Valley on September 23, after nearly a year of cross-border fire, and a week later sent ground troops into southern Lebanon.

The escalation kicked off with sabotage attacks on pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah, which killed dozens of people and injured thousands more across Lebanon. Israel has not officially taken responsibility for those attacks, but Bayram said it was "widely accepted internationally… that Israel was behind this heinous act". “In a few minutes, more than 4,000 civilians fell, between martyrs and injured and maimed,” he said, speaking through a translator. Among the victims not killed, he said many people had “lost their fingers; some have totally lost their eyesight”.

“We are in a situation where ordinary objects, objects you use in daily life, become dangerous and lethal,” he said. “If left unchecked, this crime could become normalised,” he said, adding that filing the complaint was meant “to prevent such crimes from happening in the future”.

He added that Lebanese authorities could still file complaints over the pager attacks in other international forums, including the World Trade Organization.