from Wafa – Hussein Nazir Sinwar
With the intensification of the Israeli genocide that has been waged against the Gaza Strip for nearly two years, the Israeli occupation forces have deliberately fought the Palestinian people by all means and methods, including technical and artistic ones. During this period, they cut off and bombed communications departments and antenna transmission stations, in addition to cutting off and bombing the Internet lines and optical lines and fibers that feed the Strip with the Internet and communications in a step to prevent the arrival of their crimes and prevent them from being followed up by the world and to prevent the arrival of the true image and message.
Media professionals, correspondents, and transmitters of the media message in the Gaza Strip face great difficulties and very major obstacles in conveying their message and uploading their media and journalistic materials through social media platforms and news websites due to the repeated interruption in communications and Internet service, and one of them may remain trapped in a dangerous place and isolated from the universality of his surroundings and unable to convey His voice or message.
When the occupation forces enter a place in the Gaza Strip, they deliberately cut off services and use sabotage and destruction without revealing the extent of what they are doing against the Palestinian people, so the interruption of communications and the Internet is an excuse to practice the most heinous crimes silently without the world seeing them.
The main causes of problems in communications and the Internet in Gaza are due to the deliberate targeting of infrastructure, as fiber cables (fiber) and basic networks were destroyed or damaged as a result of successive Israeli bombing or attacks towards the main communications lines and feeders, and in many cases the international network linking Gaza to the outside world is lost.
Power outages and fuel shortages have also had a significant and negative impact on the operation of towers and stations, as they require continuous electricity or generators. Fuel shortages or power outages stop their operation, especially since when there is no continuous power, it becomes difficult to operate or maintain network equipment, thus cutting off communication and the Internet.
The occupation forces require that Palestinian telecommunications workers get Israeli approval for maintenance and restoration operations in transmission towers and Internet lines, and this is extremely difficult and may extend for days or weeks before the repairs can be made, and this is part of the strategy to isolate Gaza digitally. The extensive damage, the inability of maintenance teams to reach the bombing and siege easily, and the lack of necessary materials and equipment hinder repair operations and the continued delivery of services to citizens.
Some towers operate in very limited areas, but the pressure on the network is very high, causing poor service speed or partial interruption, low call quality or frequent call interruptions, and interruption and poor Internet service, as only about 30% of cellular communication stations are active and the quality of service is low due to congestion and the increasing number of displaced people in a small area, which leads to poor and low service compared to the surrounding world.
The interruption of communications and the Internet isolates the Gaza Strip from the outside world, as it is not possible to communicate with newspapers or send news, information, and news reports, whether filmed or written, and prevents video clips from reaching followers via social media platforms and prevents the sound and image of the Strip from reaching the world, as it is difficult for journalists to document events and publish them easily and smoothly.
Relief and medical organizations in the sector rely on communications to coordinate work among themselves, send requests to follow up on emergency cases, and deliver information to citizens. Communications and internet outages also hinder these operations, and communications in hospitals, emergency rooms, and ambulances are often cut off, which has affected the rescue of the wounded and injured and increased the number of deaths.
Most educational institutions, schools, and initiatives rely heavily on the Internet for distance learning or communication between teachers, educational staff, and students. With internet outages, students are harmed and suffer significant educational losses, especially since the majority of them do not even have modern devices, phones, or computers to monitor education. With this step, Israel is deliberately imposing a policy of ignorance on members of the Gazan community.
The interruption of communications and the Internet also leads to paralysis in the local market, as trading, buying and selling in the sector is difficult because of it, and bank transfer or electronic payment operations stop in light of the scarcity of cash liquidity and payment via cash.
Citizens are the most affected by these outages. If Israeli attacks or evacuation orders occur for an area in the Gaza Strip, they may not receive alerts due to communications and internet outages. In addition, some people lose the ability to call an ambulance or communicate with the emergency services due to the lack of communications networks, whether terrestrial or cellular, as well as the lack of internet, which the entire world has come to rely on in all aspects of daily life.
In June of this year, the Gaza Strip suffered an almost complete interruption in communications and the Internet that lasted for days after the main cables feeding the Strip were targeted by the Israeli forces and in September the Internet and calls were cut off for several hours after attacks launched by the Israeli occupation forces against major departments.
These outages were not the only ones. Since the beginning of the aggression in 2023 until today, the sector has been exposed to dozens of communications and Internet outages, some of which extended for several weeks and targeted several areas, including those close to hospital centers, relief centers, and civil defense, as the United Nations documented that a complete network outage occurred on several occasions, which disrupted relief work.
To help citizens in light of these interruptions, a number of initiatives have been implemented, including: eSIM/ Remote communication is a group called Connecting Humanity Provides chips eSIM They can be activated to access networks outside Gaza, to bypass the blockade on local infrastructure. However, these solutions are not complete because some devices do not support them, or coverage may not be available in all areas. Furthermore, the vast majority of citizens cannot obtain them due to their high price and the lack of support from the majority of devices for such segments.
Maintenance teams attempt to access damaged cables and reconnect networks, when allowed in by the occupying forces, sometimes distributing mobile communication stations (like “Car on Wheels” To enhance coverage in remote areas.
It is noteworthy that the Gaza Strip relies on an infrastructure largely linked to external inputs, fiber optic cables that pass through territories under Israeli control to provide the Internet and communications. Since the outbreak of the aggression two years ago, the Strip has witnessed multiple interruptions in the Internet and telephone services as a result of bombing and military operations, which is a major obstacle to humanitarian and ambulance coordination.
