Musk to Provide Starlink Access to ‘Internationally Recognized Aid Organizations’ in Gaza

October 28, 2023 Blog, News
Elon Musk, owner of X, formerly Twitter. (Photo: JD Lascia, via Wikimedia Commons)

Israel shut down phone and internet lines through heavy bombardment on Friday.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has said that he will provide satellite internet access to “internationally recognized aid organizations” in Gaza via his Starlink network.

Phone and internet lines went down in the enclave as a result of heavy Israeli bombardment on Friday, which was followed by a failed attempt to enter Gaza by land.

Musk made his announcement on the social media platform X on Saturday, stating that SpaceX’s Starlink division would “support connectivity” with the besieged strip.

There are apparently a number of Starlink terminals in Gaza, but in a separate post on Saturday, Musk said that none of these devices had attempted to communicate with the satellite network.

“It is not clear who has authority for ground links in Gaza, but do we know that no terminal has requested a connection in that area,” he wrote on X.

Internet and cell phone services stopped working in Gaza on Friday night after a wave of Israeli airstrikes.

Gaza’s largest telecommunications operator, Paltel, announced that its infrastructure had been totally destroyed in the Israeli bombing, which preceded an attempt by the Israeli army to move into the besieged enclave.

“The intense bombing in the last hour caused the destruction of all remaining international routes linking Gaza to the outside world,” the company said.

The outage left news organizations and aid groups unable to reach their workers, with the UN children’s agency and Doctors Without Borders both reporting no contact from their employees.

This is how Starlink works, according to Techtarget.com:

“Starlink operates on a satellite internet service technology that has existed for decades. Instead of using cable technology, such as fiber optics to transmit internet data, a satellite system uses radio signals through the vacuum of space. Ground stations broadcast signals to satellites in orbits, which in turn relay the data back to the Starlink users on Earth. Each satellite in the Starlink constellation weighs 573 pounds and has a flat body. One SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket can fit up to 60 satellites.”

Israel has, thus far, killed 7,703 Palestinians in Gaza, including 3,195 children, and wounded over 19,743 more.
Palestinian Ministry of Health reports and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

On Friday night, Israel intensified airstrikes and expanded its ground operations in Gaza, while knocking out all communications for Palestinians in the besieged Strip.

Gaza has been under a tight Israeli military siege since 2007, following a democratic election in occupied Palestine, the results of which were rejected by Tel Aviv and Washington.

(RT, PC)

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1 Comment

  1. Good for Mr. Musk. He intends to help using “internationally recognized” services. But he must get past the Israelis who vow to stop any help in Gaza. They said as much. They don’t care how many children get killed, let alone adults.

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