Gazans face internet blackout after major provider collapses – report
NetStream, a primary internet provider in the Gaza Strip, has ceased providing services, the global internet monitor NetBlocks noted in a post on X on Friday.
“Confirmed: Real-time network data show that NetStream, one of the last remaining internet providers in Gaza, has collapsed days after the operator notified subscribers that service would end due to a severe shortage of fuel supplies,” NetBlocks wrote.
The chart shared by the internet monitor shows network connectivity in “Palestine” began to rapidly deteriorate on October 7, the day Hamas terrorists murdered 1,400 residents of southern Israel and took captive hundreds more.
NetStream dies out in Gaza
According to the NetBlocks data, network connectivity precipitously drops off around October 12, recovering somewhat, and then dropping to nothing on October 27.
⚠️ Confirmed: Real-time network data show that NetStream, one of the last remaining internet providers in #Gaza, has collapsed days after the operator notified subscribers that service would end due to a severe shortage of fuel supplies pic.twitter.com/HU1rw10rNy
— NetBlocks (@netblocks) October 26, 2023
Lack of fuel is becoming an ever-growing problem in Gaza.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), the UN agency providing aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza, said that it desperately needed fuel to continue its operations in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian enclave.
Later, NetBlocks wrote on X that a broad collapse in network connectivity in Gaza had occurred, particularly with Paltel, the Palestinian telecommunications company.
⚠ Confirmed: Live network data show a collapse in connectivity in the #Gaza Strip with high impact to Paltel, amid reports of heavy bombardment; the company is the last remaining major operator to supply service as connectivity declines amid ongoing fighting with Israel pic.twitter.com/nDPf7HnjKF
— NetBlocks (@netblocks) October 27, 2023
On Friday evening, Reuters reported that the Palestinian telecommunication company Jawwal released a statement on Facebook saying that mobile phone and internet service in Gaza had been disabled due to heavy bombardment.
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