Minister confirms:

Starlink may be used in Israel and Gaza

Musk's space company SpaceX launches its Starlink internet satellites into orbit in batches.(Bild: SpaceX)

Elon Musk's satellite internet service Starlink may be used in Israel and the Gaza Strip in future, subject to restrictions. For example, Israeli authorities will be able to use Starlink, as Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi announced.

In the Gaza Strip, use will be permitted for humanitarian purposes - and in each individual case only after approval by Israeli security authorities, Karhi wrote on the X platform.

On Wednesday, the Starlink operation in a field hospital operated by the United Arab Emirates in Rafah was approved. The internet service will enable video conferencing with other medical facilities and remote diagnosis in real time, it said.

Hundreds of internet satellites
Starlink connects compact ground stations for internet access to a network of hundreds of satellites. The service is owned by SpaceX, the space company run by tech billionaire Musk. The major advantage of Starlink is that access to the network is independent of the conventional telecommunications infrastructure. The telecommunications networks in the Gaza Strip are unstable and have already failed several times since the start of the war on October 7.

Starlink terminals also play an important role in the defense against Russia in Ukraine, for example. Particularly in the first weeks after the invasion in February 2022, Russian troops attempted to disrupt the Ukrainian army's communications by destroying network technology.