Gaza struggles to keep internet, cellphone service running during Israel-Hamas war: NPR

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Rana, 46, and her husband Alaa, 54, were trying to get to their family in Gaza from their home in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

“Now, when I want to make a call, I call each family member one by one, four or five times, to see who gets through,” Rana said.

“Just tell me you’re fine and that’s it. I don’t need more.”

But most of the time, it’s in vain. She said it could take days before she receives a text message from someone.

The family did not want their full names used for fear of reprisal from Israeli authorities.

According to Netblocks, a company that tracks Internet service disruptions in conflict areas, approximately 10 Telecommunications Gaza has been without electricity since the start of the war, with the blackout occurring as recently as a few weeks ago.

“We cried, we cried when they cut off communications – and that’s it, they killed them all,” Rana said.

For people living in the Gaza Strip, communication with the outside world during the war was extremely difficult. Power outages, damaged telecommunications infrastructure and alleged cyberattacks have prevented many Palestinians from calling ambulances or keeping family members updated, and have hampered aid groups from providing life-saving services.

War destroys vital infrastructure

At the headquarters of the Palestinian Telecommunications Company (Paltel) in Ramallah, West Bank, about a dozen monitors are mounted on the walls of the network operations center. Some show numbers and charts, some show a map of Gaza. Paltel is one of only two internet and mobile phone service providers in the Gaza Strip. (Another network is Ooredo, a Qatari company.)

Hamzah Naseef, Patel’s chief of operations, pointed to a map of Gaza that was dotted with dozens of red flags, as well as a few green flags.

Red flags mark sites that are corrupted or out of service. There are far fewer green systems still operating. Nassif said the war had a “significant impact on our network”.

Paltel has more than 500 cell phone towers in Gaza, 80 percent of which were destroyed during the war, Naseef said. The Israeli military did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the claims.

Complex challenges existed before the war

“It’s very difficult to work in this part of the world,” said Mamoon Fares, who is based in Ramallah and has led Paltel’s emergency response in Gaza since the war began.

Even in peacetime, Fares said the Israeli government complicates telecommunications operations for Palestinians because it controls the borders of the Palestinian territories as well as imports and exports, making it difficult to import supplies.

Patel must obtain permission from the Israeli army to enter Gaza to repair fiber optic cables or deliver diesel for generators. This process may take several days.

The company is also regulated by Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

Among other things, one of the conditions of the Oslo Accords signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993 and 1995 was for Israel to control all cellular communications and technology established by the Palestinians.

In fact, due to Israeli government restrictions, Gaza has been using only 2G cellular service – an outdated system that many countries have shut down.

Not just a telecom provider

During Israel’s war with Hamas, Paltel’s customer service agents served as emergency call centers, trying to connect missing family members with each other or call ambulances.

Mahmoud Assaf, contact center manager in Ramallah, said the company has instructed customer service staff to offer free airtime to anyone calling from a Gaza phone number.

He said his employees were emotionally affected by working during the war.

“Imagine someone calling you to say that a loved one is dying,” Assaf said. “As a client agent, you can’t physically help.”

Fares, Patel’s director of corporate support, said the company was used to working during times of war, but this was unprecedented.

“The scale of the damage is getting worse,” he said. “Our main office building was bombed – a first for us. Later, our switching offices and data centers were also bombed.”

Fares said Israel disrupted communications in Gaza twice by intentionally disconnecting cables that pass through Israel.

The Israeli military did not respond to repeated requests from NPR for comment on the claims.

When that happens, Fares said, Paltel tries to resolve the issue by calling on the International Telecommunications Union or the U.S. government to mediate with Israel. If that doesn’t work, they turn to humanitarian organizations like the United Nations or the Red Cross for help. They then waited to see if anyone could pressure the Israeli military to end the blackout, Fares said.

He said the remaining blackouts were due to Israeli damage to Gaza’s wider infrastructure.

Fiber optic networks stretched along bulldozed streets and radio stations were destroyed.

Power outages and other technical difficulties also affected aid groups. A few weeks ago, the Red Cross wanted to set up internet service for one of its offices, Fares said.

“We told them we didn’t have 200 meters of cable to connect to your office,” Fares recalls.

Communication outages hampered aid teams’ ability to carry out their work.

Juliette Touma, communications director for the U.N. agency responsible for delivering aid to Gaza, told NPR in January that “it’s extremely difficult for aid operations and coordinating the delivery of aid to not have phone lines. “.

“If we are destined to die, we would rather die doing something useful”

Getting in touch with local Paltel staff was also difficult.

Fares said Paltel has about 1,000 employees in Gaza, but he does not know the whereabouts of about 20 percent of them.

“Are they alive? Were they killed? Were they arrested? We don’t know,” he said.

Fares said the war death toll included Patel workers.

“We lost two people while doing maintenance and they were hit,” he said. “Our team has been attacked by Israeli forces about five or six times, sometimes by mistake they say.”

The Israeli military did not respond to repeated requests from NPR for comment on these claims.

However, Patel’s employees continued to work, Fares said.

“They told me that if we were destined to die, we’d rather die doing something useful,” he said.

Back at home in Ramallah, Rana and Ala were drinking tea when the phone suddenly rang.

Ara picked up the phone.

It was a call from Gaza from Rana’s brother-in-law, who was taking refuge at the Red Crescent hospital in Khan Younis.

This is a rare moment when they get an update.

The hospital is under siege. He couldn’t get out, but they were fine.

Then, the call was hung up.