The communications blackout has also hampered relief organizations and emergency workers trying to coordinate with local residents and each other. For journalists in Gaza, the power outages are an obstacle as they try to inform the world about the suffering in the Strip.
How frequent are communications outages?
Since October 7, when Hamas militants attacked Israel, Gaza has suffered communications outages nine times, according to cybersecurity monitoring group NetBlocks. Its duration ranged from nine hours to 72 hours. Communications have been cut off again since Friday.
What is the reason for the outages?
The Israeli bombing damaged mobile phone networks, according to Mamoun Fares, director of corporate support at the Palestinian Telecommunications Company, or Paltel, one of two service providers in the Strip. He added that most of the internal fiber connections that connect to switches and street cabinets are “damaged and need to be repaired.”
Cell phone towers were also damaged. Fares, who lives in the West Bank city of Ramallah, said, “We have more than 550 towers inside Gaza.” “Most of them were partially or completely damaged.”
He told the Washington Post that what compounds the problem is the displacement of more than 1.8 million people inside the enclave. Migration from northern and central Gaza to the south has strained the network's capacity there.
“If traffic increases by 15 to 20 percent, that's OK,” he said. But with so many people heading south, “suddenly our grid lost more than 50 to 60 percent of its capacity due to damage, and the million people… [in the south] It became 2 million people.”
During the humanitarian pause in November, Paltel made repairs and restored some services. “Since then, things have gone from bad to worse,” Fares said.
He said that most repairs are done “under fire.” The company coordinated reforms with Israel, but employees worked with “fighting over it.” There is gunfire around them. There are tanks that harass them from time to time.”
Two Paltel employees were killed last week, according to CEO Abdel Majeed Melhem, who said the workers were “targeted” by Israel. The company said that 13 of its employees had been killed since the beginning of the conflict.
Fares said that Paltel does not make profits in Gaza. The company is offering free minutes to ensure people stay connected and contact humanitarian services while paying to repair the damage. “We just want to make sure our network keeps working so people can make all these life-saving calls,” he said. “This is the situation under war.”
In November, Palestinian service providers said that fuel shortages had left them unable to continue service. Ishaq Sidr, Director General of the Palestinian Ministry of Communications, said that the Palestinian Telecommunications Company needs 14,500 liters of fuel per day, in addition to storage fuel, “to avoid this disaster again.”
What is the status of the mobile phone network in Gaza before October 7?
Gaza is served by two major mobile phone providers. Jawwal, owned by Paltel, introduced mobile communications services to the Palestinian territories in 1997. Ooredoo, a Qatari company, entered the market in 2017.
While Israel has fifth-generation, or 5G, mobile service, the Palestinian territories rely on the older technology. The maximum service available in the West Bank is 3G; And in Gaza, 2G.
Under the Oslo Accords — the 1993 and 1995 accords that defined the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians — and a separate set of economic protocols, Israel has control over cellular communications and technology that Palestinians may build, said Helga Tawil al-Suri, a professor at Harvard University. Media and Communication at New York University.
“Communications and infrastructure cannot be separated from the broader political context,” she said. “There are pages on what the Palestinian Authority is allowed to broadcast, and signal strengths. You are allowed to place these towers in certain areas. You are allowed to build towers this high. You cannot interfere with this type of signal. “If you want to build something new, you have to work through the Israelis.”
She said: “This is how Israel was able to cut off communications from Gaza at the beginning of the war.”
“There is no cable connecting Gaza to anything outside Gaza except those that pass through Israel,” she said. “So it is the Israeli Ministry of Communications that ultimately controls the fiber optic cables which can stop the flow of communications on those cables.”
In November, a senior US official told The Washington Post that communications in Gaza had been restored after the United States “made clear it had to be restarted.”
Another limiting factor, Tawil Al-Souri said, is the amount of spectrum — radio frequencies — allocated to mobile phone companies. “The only body that grants spectrum allocation across Gaza, Israel, the West Bank and Jerusalem is the Israeli Ministry of Communications,” she said, and this has only been increased once since the 1990s to allow Ooredoo to operate in the Palestinian territories.
During a 2022 visit, President Biden offered to upgrade cellular coverage in Gaza and the West Bank to 4G, but Fares said the initiative had stalled.
How do Gazans cope with power outages?
Some people have access to satellite phones, which bypass cellular infrastructure to connect directly to satellites. This is how Al Jazeera, for example, was able to continue covering the war during a power outage. But the technology – expensive to buy, maintain and use – is beyond the reach of most people.
Some Gazans used SIM cards from Israeli operators. Before the war, these devices could be purchased clandestinely in regular mobile phone stores. Israeli operators have better coverage and technology than Palestinian providers; SIM cards connect to powerful Israeli towers outside Gaza.
The digital version of the SIM card, called eSims, is another workaround. “If you have an eSIM and can get close enough to the buffer zone or the Egyptian border, you can pick up the signal strength from those towers if you have a phone with a roaming agreement with other companies.” The tall Syrian said.
Many eSims come from donors. Unlike physical SIM cards, eSims can be set up remotely. Egyptian journalist Mirna Al-Helbawy led a campaign to collect eSIM donations for Gaza. The donor can purchase an eSIM in his or her country of origin and send an image of the QR code to Al-Helbawy. She said on X that the campaign produced 100,000 eSims for Gazans.
What is the cause of the current power outage?
Fares said the power outage that began on Friday was due to damage to underground cables. It is the longest war.
Fares said that repair crews were unable to access the cables, because they had not yet obtained permission from Israel.
He added: “We are coordinating with the Israeli side regarding allowing our working crews to reach the affected areas and repair them in cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross” and the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees.
What did the United States say?
Biden administration officials stressed the need for effective communications in Gaza.
A National Security Council spokesperson said: “Maintaining communications and ensuring they are up and running is important for aid workers, civilians and journalists to communicate with each other and with the world.” “The lack of communications deprives people of access to life-saving information, while also undermining the ability of first responders and other humanitarian actors to act and do so safely.”
Regarding the current outage, an American official said: “We have been in contact with the government of Israel regarding this power outage and urged them to restart communications.”
Ledor reported from Philadelphia. Hajar Harb in London and Karen DeYoung in Washington contributed to this report.
