On Wednesday, Tesla CEO and SpaceX owner Elon Musk announced that Starlink’s satellite internet service has been activated in the Gaza hospital with the help of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel.
This initiative was taken to support the medical facilities and aid the ongoing conflicts affected by the war-torn region by providing a high-speed internet connection.
The SpaceX CEO took to his account to announce the news, “Starlink is now active in a Gaza hospital with the support of @UAEmediaoffice and @Israel.”
The internet connection in Gaza is relatively weak due to the lack of power and fuel to operate the internet service centers. Due to this, the medical staff and rescue teams lose connection while working.
The lack of internet also affects medical consultation and services and the health ministry’s centralized system.
Starlink is well-known for deploying internet services in conflicted zones around the globe. The UAE foreign ministry said Starlink can be instrumental in saving hundreds of lives in wartime, and thus, asked it for help.
According to reports, it has also provided internet connections in Yemen and Sudan without proper government clearance. However, the internet connection in Gaza Hospital only came into action 5 months after the Israeli government’s approval for Starlink’s operation.
This project was made possible through an agreement between Israel and SpaceX’s communication ministry, which made sure that the service would be exclusively used for humanitarian purposes and wouldn’t be accessible to Hamas, a terrorist organization, by the EU and the US.
