ISTANBUL: Billionaire businessman Elon Musk on Wednesday said that his internet service has been activated in a UAE-run field hospital in the war-torn Gaza Strip.
“Starlink is now active in a Gaza hospital with the support of the UAE Government Media Office and Israel,” Musk wrote on his X account.
Starlink is a network of satellites in low Earth orbit that can provide internet to remote locations or areas that have disabled communications infrastructure. It is owned by Musk’s SpaceX.
Last February, SpaceX and the Israeli Telecommunications Ministry agreed on a series of measures to allow Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service to be activated in a UAE-run field hospital in Gaza.
UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed thanked Musk for supporting the field hospital run by the Gulf country in Gaza.
Israel has imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip amid its deadly offensive on the enclave since Oct. 7, 2023, following a Hamas attack.
More than 39,100 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly
women and children, and over 90,200 injured, according to local health authorities.
Over nine months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
Source: Anadolu Agency