On January 31, 12-year-old Ibrahim speaks with his grandmother, who lives in Gaza, from his home in Ramallah, the Israeli-occupied West Bank. His family declined to give his full name for fear of retaliation from Israeli authorities.
NPR’s Tamir Khalifa
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NPR’s Tamir Khalifa
On January 31, 12-year-old Ibrahim speaks with his grandmother, who lives in Gaza, from his home in Ramallah, the Israeli-occupied West Bank. His family declined to give his full name for fear of retaliation from Israeli authorities.
NPR’s Tamir Khalifa
RAMALLAH, West Bank — From their home in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, 46-year-old Rana and her 54-year-old husband Alaa are trying to contact their family in Gaza.
“Now, when I want to call, I dial each family member one by one and make four or five calls to see who is connected,” Lana says.
“Tell me it’s okay and that’s it. I don’t need anything more.”
But in most cases it’s in vain. She says it can sometimes take several days before she receives a text message from someone.
The family did not want to publish their full names for fear of reprisals from Israeli authorities.
According to Netblocks, a company that tracks internet service disruptions in conflict zones, about 10 Telecommunications Gaza has been without power since the war began, as recently as a few weeks ago.
“We cried and cried when they cut off the communications. That’s it, they killed everyone,” Rana said.
During the war, it was extremely difficult for people living in the Gaza Strip to connect with the outside world. Power outages, destroyed communications infrastructure and suspected cyberattacks have left many Palestinians unable to call ambulances or update their families on the situation, and prevented aid organizations from providing life-saving services.
The war destroyed critical infrastructure.
At the headquarters of the Palestinian Telecommunications Company (Partel) in Ramallah, the West Bank, about a dozen monitors are mounted on the walls of the network operations center. Some show numbers and graphs, while others show maps of Gaza. Paltel is one of only two internet and mobile phone service providers in the Gaza Strip. (The other network is Ooredo, a Qatari-owned company.)
Hamza Naseef, head of core operations for the Palestinian Telecommunications Company, stands in the operations center of Partel’s headquarters in Ramallah, West Bank. Partel has more than 500 cell phone towers in the Gaza Strip, 80% of which were destroyed during the war, Naseef said.
NPR’s Tamir Khalifa
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Hamza Naseef, head of core operations for the Palestinian Telecommunications Company, stands in the operations center of Partel’s headquarters in Ramallah, West Bank. Partel has more than 500 cell phone towers in the Gaza Strip, 80% of which were destroyed during the war, Naseef said.
NPR’s Tamir Khalifa
Hamza Naseef, Partel’s head of operations, pointed to a map of Gaza with dozens of small red flags and some green flags flying up and down the strip.
Red flags indicate sites that have been destroyed or are out of service. A much smaller number of green ones are still functioning.The war “has had a huge impact on our networks,” Naseef says..
Partel has more than 500 cell phone towers in the Gaza Strip, 80% of which were destroyed during the war, Naseef said. The Israeli military did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the allegations.
Complex challenges predate the war
“It’s very difficult to work in this part of the world,” said Mamoun Fares, who is based in Ramallah and has been in charge of Partel’s emergency response in Gaza since the war began.
Fares said the Israeli government controls the borders, imports and exports of the Palestinian territories, making it difficult to move supplies in, complicating telecommunications operations for Palestinians even in peacetime. .
A map of Gaza at Partel headquarters shows areas where communications infrastructure has been destroyed or disabled.
NPR’s Tamir Khalifa
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A map of Gaza at Partel headquarters shows areas where communications infrastructure has been destroyed or disabled.
NPR’s Tamir Khalifa
Partel needs permission from the Israeli military to enter Gaza to repair fiber cables and deliver diesel needed for generators. This process may take several days.
The company is also regulated by Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
In addition, one of the conditions of the Oslo Accords signed by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993 and 1995 was that Israel would control all mobile communications and technology built by the Palestinians.
In fact, due to Israeli government restrictions, only 2G mobile phone service has so far operated in the Gaza Strip, but this outdated system has been shut down in many countries.
More than just a communications provider
During the Israel-Hamas war, Partel’s customer service representatives acted as an emergency call center, connecting missing families and calling ambulances.
Mahmoud Assaf, a contact center manager based in Ramallah, said the company had instructed its customer service representatives to give free talk time to anyone who called with a Gaza phone number.
He says the employees suffered psychological effects while serving during the war.
“Imagine someone calls about a loved one who is about to die,” Assaf says. “And as a customer agent, I can’t physically help.”
Fares, Partel’s head of corporate support, said the company was used to working during wartime, but something like this was unprecedented.
“The scale of the destruction just got worse and worse,” he says. “The headquarters building was bombed, which was a first for us. Then the exchange offices and data centers were bombed one after another.”
Mamoon Fares, Paltel’s corporate support director, stands in his office in Ramallah. “Working in this part of the world is very difficult,” he says.
NPR’s Tamir Khalifa
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Mamoon Fares, Paltel’s corporate support director, stands in his office in Ramallah. “Working in this part of the world is very difficult,” he says.
NPR’s Tamir Khalifa
Mr Fares said Israel had twice disrupted communications in the Gaza Strip by deliberately cutting cables running through Israel.
The Israeli military did not respond to NPR’s multiple requests for comment on these claims.
When this happens, Fares said, Partel tries to resolve the issue by appealing to the International Telecommunications Union or the U.S. government to mediate with Israel. If that doesn’t work, appeal to humanitarian organizations such as the United Nations or the Red Cross. They are then waiting to see if someone can put pressure on the Israeli military to end the blackout, Fares said.
The remaining power outages are due to Israel’s widespread destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure, he said.
Fiber networks were installed along bulldozed roads and radio stations were destroyed.
Employees work at Partel’s headquarters in Ramallah, West Bank, on January 31.
NPR’s Tamir Khalifa
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Employees work at Partel’s headquarters in Ramallah, West Bank, on January 31.
NPR’s Tamir Khalifa
Power outages and other technical issues are also impacting aid groups. A few weeks ago, the Red Cross wanted to install internet service in one of its offices, Fares said.
“We told them we don’t have 200 meters of cable to connect to your office,” Fares recalls.
And communication failures are hampering aid organizations’ activities.
“Not having a phone line to coordinate aid operations and aid delivery is very difficult,” Juliet Touma, communications director for the U.N. agency delivering aid to Gaza, told NPR in January. Ta.
Rana holds her daughter Misuk, 5, at her home in Ramallah.
NPR’s Tamir Khalifa
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Rana holds her daughter Misuk, 5, at her home in Ramallah.
NPR’s Tamir Khalifa
“If you’re going to die, it’s better to die doing something useful.”
It is also difficult to contact Partel employees on the ground.
Partel has about 1,000 employees in Gaza, but about 20% of them are unaccounted for, Fares said.
“Were they alive, killed or arrested? We don’t know,” he says.
Fares said Partel workers were also among the dead from the war.
“We lost two employees during maintenance. They were shocked,” he says. “And there were probably five or six incidents where our team was attacked by Israeli forces, sometimes incorrectly, they said.”
The Israeli military did not respond to multiple requests for comment from NPR about these claims.
Still, Partel’s employees continue to work, Fares said.
“They say if you’re going to die, you might as well die doing something useful,” he says.
When Rana and Alaa returned to Ramallah’s house and were drinking tea, the phone suddenly rang.
Alaa will come to pick you up.
Rana’s brother-in-law, from Gaza, called from the Red Crescent Hospital in Khan Younis, where he is being protected.
It’s a rare moment when they receive an update.
The hospital is under siege. He can’t go outside, but they’re fine.
And then the phone goes off.
