Israel’s two-year long (and counting) war on Gaza is probably the longest, biggest and most brutal ICT infrastructure demolition derby in history
By Katim Seringe Touray, PhD
Two years ago, on 7th October, 2023, the Palestinian militant group Ḥarakat al-Muqāwamah al-ʾIslāmiyyah (Islamic Resistance Movement), commonly called “Hamas,” and its allies launched a brazen attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people (mostly Israeli), and taking about 250 people hostage. The Hamas-led attack was a complete surprise to Israel which however, responded within a few hours, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the country was at war.
The following day, Netanyahu formally declared a state of war and vowed to fight to eliminate the military capabilities of Hamas. On 9th October, 2023, the Israeli Minister of Defence, Yoav Gallant said that Israel would impose a “total” blockade on the Gaza Strip, by cutting off electricity supply, and blocking fuel and food supplies because they were fighting “human animals.” Netanyahu and his government then proceeded to use the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) to wage a war of unprecedented brutality and inhumanity on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
During the first six days of its war on Hamas, Israel dropped 6,000 bombs, far more than the maximum number of bombs dropped in any given month from 2015 to 2019 during Operation Inherent Resolve, the US-led multinational campaign against ISIS. By the 89th day after the October 7 attack by Hamas, Israel had dropped 65,000 tonnes of explosives on Gaza – more than the power and weight of the three of the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II. Two-thirds of the bombs and missiles dropped on Gaza were imprecise and un-guided “dumb bombs” deliberately chosen to indiscriminately kill Palestinians and destroy infrastructure.
The IDF’s actions are based on Israel’s Dahiya Doctrine which calls for the large-scale destruction of civilian infrastructure to make life miserable for the civilian population which will then turn against the government hostile to Israel. On this basis, Israel went on to destroy every aspect of life in the Gaza Strip, and killed men, women, and children, young and old, entire families, journalists, medical workers, educationists, engineers, technologists, and students in two years of war on Gaza.
Israel has also almost completely destroyed Gaza’s infrastructure, including housing, roads, water supply and treatment plants, schools, hospitals, universities, as well as information and communications technology (ICT) and energy infrastructure. Take energy infrastructure, on which depends Internet and other ICT services in Gaza. By January 2024, Israel had destroyed 61.5 percent of Gaza’s power grid, and by March 2024, Israel had damaged an estimated US$500 million worth of energy infrastructure, and 90% of the solar energy systems.
Gaza’s ICT infrastructure has also been largely wiped out by Israel over the past two years of war. In any case, Israel has since 1967, had a stranglehold on Gaza’s ICT sector and infrastructure. Israel has thus restricted the importation and installation of essential telecommunications equipment in Gaza, and destroyed such equipment at will. Furthermore, Palestinian telecommunications services providers must go through Israeli companies to get access to the global internet, thus increasing the cost of internet access to Palestinians, and Israel’s control of Palestinian access to the internet.
Israel’s control of the telecommunications sector in Gaza was exacerbated by the Oslo Accords. Under the terms of these Accords, Israel effectively has full control over Gaza’s international telecommunications gateways, mobile communications frequency spectrum, and what telecommunications technologies can be deployed in Gaza. Israel thus has, for over a decade, refused to approve the use of 4G telecommunications technology in Gaza.
As a result, Gaza is now one of the few places in the world which still uses 2G telecommunications technology which only supports digital voice and SMS, and internet speeds of up to 64 Kbps. In contrast, the rest of the world is using 4G LTE (up to 100 Mbps, enabling HD video streaming and smooth online gaming), and increasingly adopting 5G (100 – 2,000 Mbps internet speeds supporting ultra-HD streaming, augmented reality applications, and instantaneous downloads).
Unless they are able to use eSIMs to connect to Israeli internet service providers, Gazans cannot access much of what defines the present-day internet (for example, social media, streaming video and music, as well as online gaming) which the rest of the world takes for granted.
As in previous conflicts in 2008, 2012, 2014, and 2021 (when Israel massively bombed internet infrastructure) in Gaza, the IDF has over the past two years attacked Gaza’s telecommunications infrastructure, destroying buildings, equipment, and communications towers, and depriving telecommunications companies of fuel to run their standby generators. The on-going war, like the previous conflicts have also prevented the upgrading, expansion and modernization of Gaza’s telecommunications infrastructure, thus rendering it outdated and insufficient to serve the needs of the Strip’s growing population.
Gaza’s telecommunications and Internet connection to the world collapsed by 27th October, 2023 because of its war with Israel. By mid-April, 2024, 75 percent of Gaza’s mobile phone towers were out of service. By October 2024, almost 74 percent of ICT assets were completely destroyed, 16 percent partially damaged, and the remaining 10 percent minimally damaged. Israel’s war on Gaza has resulted in a near-total destruction of the mobile communications infrastructure, total destruction of all warehouses and facilities, and significant harm to the fiber-optic backbone. As a result, Gaza had experienced approximately 16 telecommunications blackouts by November, 2024.
Israel also bombed at least 73 media outlets, and all of Gaza’s radio stations have closed because of bombardment, power outages, or the killing or displacement of staff. In addition, the IDF destroyed the offices of IT companies and startup incubators, as well as technology centers in Gaza to undermine Gaza’s economic, educational and scientific base, and impeded the development of Palestinian society.
The total cost of damages to the ICT infrastructure was estimated at US$164 million, losses over five years were projected to reach US$736 million, mostly due to lost revenues, and the total reconstruction and recovery needs of the ICT sector was estimated at US$460 million in January 2025.
The IDF has deliberately killed telecommunications workers who attempted to repair equipment damaged by its bombing of Gaza, IT experts (some of whom were among the finest in the world), and 254 journalists (as of 5th October, 2025), including a pregnant female journalist and her family. Some IT experts and journalists killed by the IDF were killed along with their entire families, including pregnant women.
Israel’s destruction of ICT infrastructure in Gaza has had devastating consequences on lives of those in Gaza who have been fortunate to be spared the fate of the over 67,000 people killed (as of 5th October, 2025) in its war on Gaza. These survivors, most of whom (1.9 million people or 86.4 percent of the population; as of October 2024) were displaced, rely on digital connectivity to access information and essential services, and locate family members.
Internet connectivity is also indispensable because it helps the coordination of emergency and humanitarian response, and the continuity of education of displaced students through online education. No wonder then that 95 civil society organisations from around the world on 20th October, 2023, roundly condemned Israel’s attack on Gaza’s ICT infrastructure, and strongly called for the restoration of telecommunications and other essential services.
Furthermore, the deliberate targeting and killing of Palestinian journalists by the IDF hides the reality of the war from the world, limits the understanding of Israelis of the war, and furthers the victimhood narrative being peddled by the Israeli government. This also results in the flourishing of disinformation and propaganda, at the expense of accountability.
Nevertheless, the truth is coming out. Thus, the International Criminal Court in November 2024 issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Gallant for committing crimes against humanity for their roles in Israel’s war on Gaza, and the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory recently issued a report stating that Israel is committing a Genocide in Gaza.
Despite this Israel, with iron-clad backing of the United States, in defiance of international calls for a ceasefire and despite its increasing isolation, continues to kill innocent people, destroy infrastructure, and turn Gaza into a Moonscape.
So, on the second anniversary of the start of Israel’s now senseless, inhumane and criminal Genocide in Gaza, please spare a thought for people in Gaza as you enjoy your high-speed internet connection, your TikTok videos, your Facebook Reels, your WhatsApp groups, your LinkedIn, your ChatGPT, your Spotify streams, or any of the other thousands of internet-based services and tools you just simply cannot do without.
Katim Seringe Touray, PhD. is a soil scientist and international development consultant, and writes about development issues, science, technology and global affairs. More of his articles are at https://kstouray.medium.com
