By Catherine Cartier
DUBAI (Reuters) – SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said that his Starlink satellite internet service has been activated in a hospital in Gaza, where many medical facilities have been destroyed by the war, with the help of the United Arab Emirates and Israel.
The Gulf Arab state’s foreign minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, thanked the billionaire entrepreneur for supporting the UAE field hospital in Gaza, where many medical facilities have been demolished and medicines are scarce.
“Starlink is now active in a Gaza hospital with the support of @UAEmediaoffice and @Israel,” Musk posted on X.
The announcement came more than five months after the Israeli government gave approval for Starlink’s use in the hospital in Rafah, a flashpoint city in southern Gaza.
Residents said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had blown up several homes in Rafah, near the Egyptian border, where Israel said its operation aimed to dismantle the last Hamas battalions.
The high speed internet would enable potentially life-saving medical consultations via real-time video calling, the UAE foreign ministry said in February.
The UAE, a major oil producer and regional finance and tourism hub, signed a normalisation deal with Israel in 2020 along with Bahrain and Morocco. Sudan later sealed a normalisation agreement with Israel.
The pacts were designed to bring stability and prosperity to the turbulent Middle East.
Hamas started the war in Gaza on Oct. 7 when it attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking over 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel responded with an offensive that has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, and turned the coastal strip into a wasteland.
(Editing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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