Elon Musk Announces Starlink Internet Access for Gaza Organizations
Elon Musk, the billionaire, announced on Saturday that his Starlink satellite service would provide internet access to “internationally recognized aid organizations in Gaza.” These organizations have been experiencing a telecommunications blackout since Friday.
Starlink is a network of satellites in low Earth orbit that can provide internet to remote locations or areas where normal communication infrastructure is disabled.
Musk, who owns Starlink operator SpaceX, was responding to a post by Democratic US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in which she called the communication breakdown in Gaza “unacceptable”.
“Starlink supports connections to internationally recognized aid organizations in Gaza,” Musk wrote on X, the former Twitter account he also owns.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director of the World Health Organization, said: “We could really benefit from Starlink if we were trying to reach our staff and our health facilities in the Gaza Strip. How can we make that happen?”
UN agencies and non-governmental organizations announced earlier on Saturday that they had lost contact with their groups in the Gaza Strip.
“Hospitals and humanitarian operations cannot continue without communication,” Lynn Hastings, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, wrote to X.
Israel launched its bombing campaign after Hamas gunmen stormed across the Gaza border on Oct. 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and taking more than 220 hostages, according to Israeli officials.
The health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said the Israeli strikes killed 7,703 people, mostly civilians, including 3,500 children.
Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service was also launched in Ukraine shortly after the Russian invasion in February 2022.
The network, which helps increasingly high-tech soldiers operate in areas where other means of communication are absent, is an important battlefield tool for Kiev.
In September, Musk said he prevented Ukraine from sweeping Russia’s Black Sea fleet last year by denying Starlink Internet access.
“Government officials urgently asked to activate Starlink all the way to Sevastopol. The apparent intent was to sink most of the Russian fleet at anchor,” Musk wrote in X.
The statement drew sharp condemnation from Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
