Elon Musk offered on Saturday to provide Starlink internet access to internationally recognized aid organizations in Gaza, as the territory suffers a communications blackout due to intensified Israeli bombardment.

American billionaire Elon Musk announced on Saturday that his Starlink satellite internet service would provide support for ‘internationally recognized aid organizations’ in Gaza.

Communication and internet services have been disrupted in the Palestinian territory since the escalation of Israeli raids on Friday, October 27. The Palestinian telecom company Jawwal has confirmed the outage, stating that the shelling has caused a ‘complete interruption of communication services.’

‘Starlink will support the connectivity of internationally recognized aid organizations in Gaza,’ wrote Elon Musk on the social network X (ex-Twitter), which he also owns, without giving further details.

He was responding to a message from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic member of the US House of Representatives, who, on Saturday, described the shutdown of telecommunications in the Palestinian territory as ‘unacceptable.’

The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, posed a question on the same social network: ‘We could really benefit from Starlink to try to get in touch with our staff and health facilities in Gaza. How can we do that?’

Meanwhile, NGOs and UN agencies have reported losing contact with their teams in Gaza.

Israel’s sharp response

The Starlink satellite internet access service, operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, was also deployed in Ukraine shortly after Russia’s invasion in February 2022.

This proposal from the Tesla and SpaceX owner, known for his unconventional approaches, did not sit well with the Israeli government and its Communications Minister, Shlomo Karai, who responded sharply on the same day:

“Israel will use all the means at its disposal to fight this. Hamas will use it for terrorist activities. There’s no doubt about it, we know it and Musk knows it. Hamas is like the Islamic State. Maybe Musk would be willing to condition this on the release of our kidnapped babies, sons, daughters and elderly. All of them! In the meantime, my office will cut all ties with Starlink.”

Katrine Dige Houmøller, with AFP