A recent report from the Arab Centre for the Advancement of Social Media, known as 7amleh, has highlighted the severe destruction of Gaza's telecommunications infrastructure resulting from the ongoing Israeli hostilities, which has greatly hindered communication for the residents of Gaza.
As reported by WAFA, around 75% of the telecommunications infrastructure in Gaza has sustained damage, with 50% completely destroyed.
Preliminary evaluations conducted by the Palestine Telecommunications Company (Paltel) and Ooredoo, as communicated by the Palestinian Ministry of Telecommunications and Digital Economy, project the costs for reconstruction to be approximately $90 million by early 2024.
Since October 2023, communication services in Gaza have been interrupted nearly 15 times, obstructing emergency responses, family communications, and access to trustworthy news outlets.
At present, only 30% of communication towers are functioning, leaving more than 718,000 students without the ability to engage in virtual learning and isolating families from vital services.