Starlink to provide connectivity in Gaza through aid organisations, says Elon Musk

Gulf Today Report

Tesla chief Elon Musk said on X platform that Starlink will support connectivity to internationally recognised aid organisations in Gaza.

A massive X storm generated on Friday evening by users urging the Musk to give free Starlink connection to Gazans.  

Musk responded to a Tweet by US leader Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who wrote, “Cutting off all communication to a population of 2.2 million is unacceptable. Journalists, medical professionals, humanitarian efforts, and innocents are all endangered.

“I do not know how such an act can be defended. The United States has historically denounced this practice.”

Starlink is a satellite network developed by Musk's space flight company SpaceX to provide low-cost internet to remote locations.

A Starlink satellite has a lifespan of approximately five years and SpaceX eventually hopes to have as many as 42,000 satellites in this so-called megaconstellation.

On Friday, internet access and the phone network were completely cut across the Gaza Strip on Friday, amid intense Israeli bombardment of the Palestinian territory.

The government of Hamas accused Israel of taking the measure "to perpetrate massacres with bloody retaliatory strikes from the air, land and sea."

Journalists in Gaza confirmed they were only able to communicate in limited areas where they could connect to Israeli networks across the border.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said the "disruption affects the central emergency number 101 and hinders the arrival of ambulance vehicles to the wounded" in the ongoing strikes.