Starlink heading to Gaza, despite Israel opposition

Elon Musk’s Starlink is once again headed to a war zone after the total shutdown of Gaza’s telecom infrastructure over the weekend.

Musk committed Starlink in response to a tweet by Democrat congress member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who said “cutting off all communication to a population of 2.2 million is unacceptable.”

The news sparked a sharp response from Israel communications minister Shlomo Karhi, who declared that the satellite service would inevitably be used by Hamas.

“Israel will use all means at its disposal to fight this,” he said.

But Musk said the service would only serve international aid groups and that Starlink would carry out security checks before switching on terminals. He said so far no Starlink terminal has attempted to connect from Gaza.

All of this took place during the network closure as Israeli forces began their invasion of northern Gaza over the weekend.

Although the shutdown was lifted late Sunday afternoon local time, the territory had been under a near-complete blackout for more than two weeks, digital rights group Access Now said.

It says a good deal of Gaza’s mobile network infrastructure had been forced off the air either through bombing or the lack of power.

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