Remote diagnoses

Musk: Starlink now active in Gaza hospital

A receiving terminal of the internet satellite service Starlink

(Bild: AFP)

Tech billionaire Elon Musk's satellite internet service Starlink is now also being used in the embattled Gaza Strip. The service is now active in a hospital, Musk wrote on his platform X. 

This is supported by the United Arab Emirates and Israel. The internet service is intended to enable video conferencing with other medical facilities and remote diagnosis in real time.

In February, Israel had already permitted the use of Starlink in its own country and in the Gaza Strip with restrictions for humanitarian purposes and approved its use in a field hospital in Rafah operated by the United Arab Emirates. 

Fear of misuse
In October, after the start of the war, Israel declared that it would do everything in its power to prevent the use of Starlink in the Gaza Strip. The reason for this was that the Islamist Hamas, which rules the sealed-off coastal area, would misuse the system for terrorist purposes.

Musk had previously announced that he wanted to use the satellite communication system to help re-establish the interrupted communication with internationally recognized aid organizations in the Gaza Strip.

Independent of telecommunications infrastructure 
The major advantage of Starlink is that access to the network is independent of the conventional telecommunications infrastructure. In the Gaza Strip, which has been severely damaged by the ongoing war, the telecommunications networks are unstable and have failed several times since the fighting began more than nine months ago.