"Can Elon Musk’s Starlink provide internet service to Gaza?"

As Gaza experienced a near-total communications blackout on Friday, a campaign began trending on social media platforms, calling on billionaire tycoon Elon Musk to power the bombarded enclave with Starlink internet...

SpaceX CEO Musk initially responded to a post calling for Starlink support for Gaza, saying that it wasn’t clear who had authority for ground links in the besieged enclave and that “no terminals from Gaza have attempted to communicate with our constellation”.

After the calls for Musk to support communication in Gaza through Starlink gained momentum, the billionare businessman announced that “Starlink will support connectivity to internationally recognized aid organizations in Gaza.” ...

Marc Owen Jones, associate professor of Middle East Studies at Hamad Bin Khalifa University based in Doha, is uncertain if it can work in Gaza.

“We’ve seen 500,000 posts on X saying Starlink should power Gaza. But people don’t actually appreciate that ‘Starlink for Gaza’ is an impossibility,” he told Al Jazeera.

“Starlink terminals or dishes in Gaza would be difficult to smuggle in and distribute at scale. The Israeli government is unlikely to allow legal imports of it,” Owen Jones told Al Jazeera.

“But let’s say Starlink got in. How will it be powered? There is no fuel in Gaza right now.”...

“Owning a Starlink terminal with two-way transmission could endanger Gazans if detected by Israeli authorities,” he said, adding that the internet provision would likely meet opposition from the United States and Israel administrations...

On Saturday, Israel’s Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi lashed out at Musk on the social media platform X for considering provision of Starlink to aid organisations in Gaza. Karhi said Israel will cut off any ties with Starlink...

Musk responded by saying that his company is “not so naive” and would do “a security check with both the US and Israeli governments before turning on even a single terminal”...

In February 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine, Musk instantly ensured Starlink terminals would be made available to help people and the army in Ukraine after internet services were disrupted due to the war.

But a year into the conflict, concerns over Starlink aiding Russia’s military have been raised.

In September, Musk faced criticism from leaders in Ukraine for refusing to have Starlink services in Russian-annexed Crimea...

But with Musk’s Starlink proposal for Gaza only seeking to cater to international aid organisations, efforts continue across the globe to ensure that ordinary civilians in Gaza are able to continue communicating with each other in case telecommunication services are disrupted again.

Egypt-based journalist and writer Mirna El Helbawi began a social media campaign of collecting eSims from around the world to help people in Gaza...

Since then, El Helbawi expressed on X that she has managed to send free eSims to several journalists, people, and a few doctors in Gaza.

She added that she has now teamed up with telecommunications startup Simly to ensure “everyone gets stable and consistent internet access there [in Gaza]”...

While international aid organisations have welcomed Musk’s proposal to help them with Starlink, questions remain over how it will be installed in an enclave that continues to be bombarded relentlessly and remains under a blockade...

“I don’t think he gets the dominance of Israel’s control over the area, the dangers Starlink might put Gazans in,” Owen Jones said. “He is doing this to simply look good in light of the campaign for Starlink to be given to Gazans.”