GAZA– The Deputy Minister of Telecommunications and Digital Economy for Palestine, Huda Al-Wahidi, has revealed that Israel’s ongoing military assault on the Gaza Strip has devastated the telecommunications sector, destroying approximately 74% of its infrastructure.
Speaking at a meeting of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Board of Directors in Geneva, Al-Wahidi reported that direct damages to the sector are estimated at $164 million, primarily due to the destruction of 580 cell towers and critical fiber optic networks. She warned that long-term economic losses could reach $736 million over the next five years, given the need to rebuild Gaza’s digital infrastructure entirely from the ground up.
Al-Wahidi described the crisis as “unprecedented,” emphasizing the collapse of services and the accelerating deterioration of digital capabilities. She criticized the lack of concrete international action to implement UN Resolution 1424 (2024), which calls for the immediate reconstruction and protection of the Palestinian telecommunications network.
She urged the ITU Council to formulate an urgent action plan to operationalize the resolution and to take serious steps to protect Gaza’s digital infrastructure from ongoing Israeli targeting. The destruction has left Gaza nearly cut off from communication, both internally and with the outside world.
Since October 7, 2023, Palestinian telecom companies have repeatedly reported massive service outages, triggered by Israeli airstrikes and chronic fuel shortages, which have paralyzed operations and maintenance.
The telecommunications disaster forms part of a broader pattern of destruction. Backed by the United States, the Israeli occupation has waged what many international observers and human rights organizations describe as a campaign of genocide against the Gaza Strip. This assault has resulted in nearly 190,000 Palestinian casualties, including a majority of women and children, alongside more than 11,000 people still missing and the mass displacement of hundreds of thousands.
