Musk’s SpaceX Starlink service ‘now active’ in a Gaza hospital, after Israeli permission

SpaceX has begun offering Starlink internet in a hospital in the Gaza Strip, Elon Musk announced on his social media site X, just over five months after receiving permission to start services there from the Israeli government.

Starlink, which uses thousands of satellites in low-Earth orbit to provide web access, is “now active” in the hospital, Musk wrote in a one-sentence post.

The company and Israel’s communications ministry in February agreed to a series of measures that would allow the system’s use in a field hospital run by the United Arab Emirates while preventing access for Hamas, designated as a terrorist organisation by the US and the European Union.

The initiation of service comes with the support of both the UAE and Israel, Musk wrote on X.

The Gulf Arab state’s foreign minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, thanked the billionaire entrepreneur for supporting the UAE field hospital in Gaza, where many medical facilities have been demolished and medicines are scarce.

The high speed internet would enable potentially life-saving medical consultations via real-time video calling, the UAE foreign ministry said in February.

The UAE, a major oil producer and regional finance and tourism hub, signed a normalisation deal with Israel in 2020 along with Bahrain and Morocco. Sudan later sealed a normalisation agreement with Israel.