Access Now calls for urgent telecommunications restoration in Gaza Strip and affected areas
"#KeepItOn: Telecommunications blackout in the Gaza Strip is an attack on human rights", 13 October 2023
People living in the Gaza Strip are under a “complete siege,” cut off from supplies of fuel, food, water, medical provisions, and electricity, and a near-complete communications blackout.
"The Gaza Strip is being cut off from the world. Access Now demands the immediate restoration of internet access for the people of Gaza... The total blockade now in place will only exacerbate the situation and may result in more atrocities for those plunged under the darkness of a communications blackout." Marra Fatafta, Mena Policy and Advocacy Manager at Access Now
Data from the Internet Outage Detection and Analysis (IODA) shows a major connectivity dip in Gaza coinciding with the start of Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip following Hamas’ assault on Israeli border towns... Airstrikes by Israeli forces..., destroyed a building containing both offices and infrastructure for Paltel and Jawwal, two of the main telecommunications providers in the Gaza Strip. Al–Watan Tower, another building that houses media offices and serves as a hub for internet service providers, has also been the target of Israeli airstrikes.
Other internet service providers including Fusion, Hadara, and Jetnet have been impacted, with damage to infrastructure causing widespread outages in both internet and telephone line access. ...reports indicated that fixed-line internet, mobile data, SMS, telephone, and TV networks are all seriously compromised. With significant and increasing damage to the electrical grid, orders by the Israeli Ministry of Energy to stop supplying electricity to the Gaza Strip, and the last remaining power station now out of fuel, many are no longer able to charge devices that are essential to communicate and access information. Even where intermittent connection may still be available, Israel’s long-standing ban on technology upgrades in Gaza means that people can only access slow, unreliable 2G service.
Together, these disruptions have left the people of Gaza with no meaningful remaining channels of communication to contact loved ones and share life-saving information while Israeli forces are deploying a barrage of bombings across residential neighborhoods, hospitals, refugee camps, and other civilian spaces.
The imposition of a complete siege and deliberate targeting of critical civilian infrastructure, including telecommunications, as a collective punishment or retaliation is forbidden by customary international humanitarian law and international humanitarian law regulating military occupation.
The international community explicitly condemns governments’ deployment of internet shutdowns during wars and armed conflicts...
Israeli authorities must immediately stop targeting telecommunication infrastructure. Access Now calls on the international community to take all the necessary steps to support the immediate restoration of telecommunications services in the Gaza Strip and any other affected areas.