Washington to Israel: Turn the lights back on in Gaza

The Biden administration is pressing Israel to restore telecommunications access to Gaza amid a massive blackout that has stretched a record six days and left millions of Palestinians without power or internet.

Administration officials fear the blackout will make it difficult for anyone to know what is happening between Hamas and the Israeli military as the war in Gaza continues, potentially worsening an already dire humanitarian situation. The U.S. has “been in touch with the government of Israel over this blackout and have urged them to turn telecoms back on,” said a U.S. official at the White House, speaking anonymously due to the sensitivity of the discussions.

The White House didn’t specify what that pressure looked like. But National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson, in a statement, warned the “absence of telecommunications deprives people from accessing life-saving information, while also undermining first responders and other humanitarian actors’ ability to operate and to do so safely.”

Watson said Israeli officials justified the blackout by telling the White House there could be “operational reasons for temporary outages” but that those should remain “rare and short in duration.”

It’s the longest blackout the Palestinians have faced since Internet and cybersecurity monitoring firm Netblocks began keeping track in 2018, according to founder Alp Toker. But it’s far from the first incident, which has occurred at a frequent clip following Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and the subsequent Israeli bombardment of Gaza. Even before the war, Israel held control over the information and communications technology sector for the Palestinian territories.

“It indicates a growing difficulty in maintaining telecoms infrastructure in an active war zone,” Toker said. “Especially where repair crews have lost their lives in the field.”

Services for Paltel, the Palestinian telecom group, have shut down nine times as a result of Israeli strikes and a lack of fuel supplies, which makes it impossible to run generators that keep on power. The company flagged the latest downed network on January 12, later sharing that two of its engineers were killed by a “direct missile” a day later while driving a company car to repair the systems.

The blackout coincides with a particularly intense Israeli military campaign, including the return of tanks to northern Gaza following a brief hiatus and additional campaigns in the south.

The Israeli Defense Forces, in a statement, stressed that it is working on the restoration of infrastructure in affected areas and coordinating with local teams to repair the infrastructure where needed.

“It is important to remember that the Gaza Strip is an active war zone,” the statement reads, “and thus can experience temporary disruptions to internet connectivity due to the ongoing conflicts.”

Alex Ward contributed to this report.