Elon Musk offers his Starlink to Gaza; Will Hamas be able to use it?
Elon Musk offered his Starlink system to Gaza after communications in the enclave were cut off. Israel says that Hamas will use it for terrorist purposes.
The situation in the Gaza Strip becomes increasingly complicated with each passing day. The increase in the intensity of attacks by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in recent days caused telecommunications systems in the area to be cut off casuing a near-total blackout. A situation for which Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and founder of SpaceX, offered his assistance.
Recently, Musk announced that his Starlink network of broadband internet satellites would support connectivity in the Gaza Strip. Despite the billionaire stating that the service would only be provided to “internationally recognized aid organizations” the offer was condemned by Israel. In response, the nation’s communication minister Shlomo Karhi assured that Hamas would use them for “terrorist activities”.
“Israel will use all means at its disposal to fight this,” the minister warned, before insisting on Hamas’s intentions. “There is no doubt about it, we know it, and musk knows it. Hamas is ISIS,” Karhi posted on the billionaire’s social media platform. “Perhaps Musk would be willing to condition it with the release of our kidnapped babies, sons, daughters, elderly people. All of them!”
“Starlink will support connectivity with internationally recognized aid organizations in Gaza,” said the tycoon, who confirms that he will carry out a security check with both the United States and Israel “before even turning on a single terminal. We are not so naive.” Since Israel intensified its attacks, the UN has claimed to have lost contact with some of its agencies in the region.
Would Hamas be able to use Starlink?
In order for the Starlink system to work, the intended entities in the Gaza Strip would need to have a dedicated ground station. That would require that any such equipment pass through the Israeli blockade.
Not to mention that the Starlink system is not up and running in Gaza and would require additional work to make it operational. With Israel’s vocal opposition to the service being present in the conflict zone that is unlikely to happen.
But were the system to be set up in Gaza could Hamas get its hands on it and use it for its own purposes? There is always that possibility says Alp Toker, the founder Netblocks, a global internet monitoring group, speaking to Morning Cyber. However, Starlink has precise geolocation tools that it could use to “stamp out that possibility” and make sure that only groups allowed to use can.
Starlink satellites
The company has put over 4,500 small satellites into orbit around the Earth, with which it offers a high-speed connection. In the coming years it hopes to reach up to 12,000 satellites, possibly expanding to 42,000 in the future. The satellites operate a little more than 340 miles above the Earth’s surface, and which can often be observed with the naked eye and have caused consternation among astronomers for interferring with telescope observations.
Thanks to this large number of link points, interconnected with laser technology, they would allow connections to be maintained stably, even if some of the satellites were destroyed.