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In Gaza, Keeping the Internet on Can Cost Lives but Also Save Them

Displaced Palestinians make their way as they flee the eastern part of Khan Younis following an Israeli army evacuation order, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip August 8, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians make their way as they flee the eastern part of Khan Younis following an Israeli army evacuation order, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip August 8, 2024. (Reuters)
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In Gaza, Keeping the Internet on Can Cost Lives but Also Save Them

Displaced Palestinians make their way as they flee the eastern part of Khan Younis following an Israeli army evacuation order, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip August 8, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians make their way as they flee the eastern part of Khan Younis following an Israeli army evacuation order, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip August 8, 2024. (Reuters)

Forced to flee his home yet again as war raged across the Gaza Strip, Khalil Salim was desperate to get his family to safety but how could he be sure he wasn’t leading them deeper into danger?

He needed up-to-date information and so he went online and checked out the official social media accounts of the Israeli army and other online sources.

"We would take instructions from the internet. We couldn't assess the internal fighting ... so we would follow the news and channels and look at Facebook and see what people wrote," Salim said.

But when he could not get a signal or a connection, he was left in the dark, with no sure way of plotting a safe route.

"What was pitiful is that (the Israeli army) would put instructions on their Facebook and we wouldn't even have internet. It would be very difficult for us to find out that there were instructions to do this and not that. Sometimes we would spend two days, sometimes a week, without internet."

In the rubble of Gaza, it can be difficult and dangerous to get online but tech activists and Palestinian engineers are making sure the enclave does not go totally dark, securing a precious digital lifeline for thousands of people.

Preserving this connection comes at a price and the risks can be deadly for desperate users clambering to high ground to get a signal or engineers travelling to dangerous areas to repair damaged cables or telecoms towers.

In May, an Israeli strike hit a gathering of people outside a Gaza City shop that provides an internet signal for customers, killing at least three people and wounding more than 20, medics said.

Salim knows all too well what drove those people to that shop.

"Internet is life; without the internet, (life) has no meaning, it is like a prison," the IT engineer and pharmacist told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Al-Mawasi, an area on the western outskirts of Khan Younis where he now lives with his family after fleeing the border city of Rafah.

THE GIFT OF ACCESS

Israel launched its offensive on Gaza after fighters from the Hamas Islamist militant group attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and capturing 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel responded by assaulting the coastal enclave, vowing to annihilate the group. Almost 40,000 people have since been killed in Israeli strikes, according to Gaza’s health authorities, with thousands more bodies feared buried under the rubble.

Gaza's economy and infrastructure have been devastated by months of relentless bombing and conflict. Houses, roads, schools, and hospitals have been obliterated and around 70% of the infrastructure needed for communication and technology has been damaged or destroyed.

Tech entrepreneurs outside Gaza are using electronic SIMs, or eSIMs, to help strengthen Gaza's frayed digital lifeline.

An eSIM gives users the option of activating a mobile network's cellular data plan without actually having a physical SIM card. They can be activated using a QR code, allowing users to connect in roaming mode to a foreign network.

For example, Gaza Online, a volunteer group, provides free eSIMs to families to help them stay connected to each other. The group relies on in-kind donations of eSIM activation codes and matches them with families in Gaza through WhatsApp.

Early in the war, an eSIM allowed Salim to oversee the evacuation of his daughter, who was wounded in an Israeli bombing in October, to Egypt and then Tunisia. He was also able to advise doctors on her care.

Nadine Hassan, Gaza Online's chief operating officer who is based in Jordan, said her group’s work is becoming "more challenging every day" with funding a particular issue.

The group has been finding it increasingly difficult to buy eSIMs online as vendors keep closing down their accounts, saying they violated terms of service by buying in bulk.

Activating an eSIM requires a relatively new smartphone model and updated software, Hassan said, a tall order for people in Gaza who are preoccupied with securing access to food and clean water.

Another hurdle, and something of a mystery, is the fact that most of the eSIMs only seem to work at night.

"We have no idea why and we can't find an explanation for it," she said.

ENGINEERS RISK LIVES

Even before the war, telecoms services in Gaza were fragile; a World Bank report from earlier this year said the enclave was the only place in the world that still relied on "obsolete" 2G technology and had no mobile broadband coverage.

By February, the enclave's largest telecoms provider, Paltel, had reported more than 10 total collapses in service provision since Oct. 7. Even when its network has been partly working, it has struggled to maintain service in many areas because of the fighting.

Despite the ongoing battles between Israeli forces and Hamas militants, telecoms engineers have been working to restore services, with reports of several being killed while trying to fix damaged infrastructure.

Speaking to the Thomson Reuters Foundation in March, Hani Alami, who heads East Jerusalem-based internet service provider Coolnet, said one of his teams working in the center of Gaza was hit in February during a suspected Israeli attack, with two engineers killed and one injured.

Alami said he had coordinated his team's movements with the Israeli army before they headed out.

"They gave us the green light to move from the first point and while the vehicle was moving on its track, they bombed the vehicle," he said.

Asked about the alleged incident, the Israeli army said in a statement to the Thomson Reuters Foundation that it "follows international law and takes feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm."

Some activists have called on Israel to observe a digital ceasefire as the war drags on.

In an article for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, Brett Solomon, former executive director of Internet advocacy watchdog Access Now, said "digital ceasefires must be annexed to traditional ceasefire agreements, encompassing everything from connectivity to censorship."

For now, as he tries to rebuild his life in a half-built house close to the sea, Salim feels more isolated than ever. He can no longer use his eSIM as he is too far from Israeli telecoms towers, he said.

Instead, he must make do with local providers who charge exorbitant fees to go online. It can also take up to a month to get the necessary approvals to get an Internet connection.

That's just too long for people who might have to flee the bombs and bullets again as the conflict waxes and wanes.

Salim would like to get his IT business up and running again so that he can provide for his family. But with no internet, there can be no work.

"If they see you cannot even do a meeting, they become convinced that you cannot do the job."

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RSF Fighters Sow Chaos in Sudan's Farming Heartland

Families displaced by RSF advances in Sudan's El Gezira and Sennar states shelter at the Omar ibn al-Khattab displacement site, Kassala state, Sudan, July 10, 2024. REUTERS/ Faiz Abubakr
Families displaced by RSF advances in Sudan's El Gezira and Sennar states shelter at the Omar ibn al-Khattab displacement site, Kassala state, Sudan, July 10, 2024. REUTERS/ Faiz Abubakr
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RSF Fighters Sow Chaos in Sudan's Farming Heartland

Families displaced by RSF advances in Sudan's El Gezira and Sennar states shelter at the Omar ibn al-Khattab displacement site, Kassala state, Sudan, July 10, 2024. REUTERS/ Faiz Abubakr
Families displaced by RSF advances in Sudan's El Gezira and Sennar states shelter at the Omar ibn al-Khattab displacement site, Kassala state, Sudan, July 10, 2024. REUTERS/ Faiz Abubakr

When fighters from Sudan's Rapid Support Forces began seizing vehicles from people in Sharafat Alhalaween village, local elders complained to the group’s commanders.

They assured the village during a March visit that the RSF would protect civilians, according to four residents. Soon afterward, the RSF posted a video on social media - reviewed by Reuters - claiming to have dealt with unspecified "rogue actors" in the area.

But the next morning, the residents told Reuters, dozens of fighters stormed in on motorcycles and pickup trucks, firing guns in the air. The fighters, some in uniforms, went door to door grabbing money and valuables, prompting an exodus of thousands of people, they said.

The residents' accounts echo ones from across Sudan's central El Gezira state, a key farming region and strategic crossroads just south of the capital, Khartoum. Reuters interviewed 43 people from 20 communities - including residents, activists and RSF recruits - who described a spiral of looting, kidnapping and killing after the group seized most of the state in December.

The RSF has sought to convey in videos like the one posted in March that it is protecting civilians and providing food and services. But residents said the paramilitary group relies on a mix of irregular fighters, many motivated by bounty, and it often struggles to control them.

The Sudanese Armed Forces, which shared power with the RSF in a military-led government until fighting erupted between them in April 2023, has carried out airstrikes in El Gezira but has few ground forces there, according to residents and local activists. The military mobilized civilians to defend their communities, triggering deadly retribution, they said.

The violence has driven over 850,000 people from their homes, the United Nations says, disrupted farming critical to Sudan's food production and raised questions about the RSF's ability to enforce any truce after nearly 16 months of war.

"Some RSF officials admit that the group will face huge internal challenges should the war ever stop," said Alan Boswell of the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank. "It is bound together by conquest and the spoils of war."

The RSF denied targeting civilians or lacking command and control of its forces.

"The army, Islamist militias and criminals looted the state systematically in order to scapegoat our forces," it said in a statement to Reuters. "Our forces clashed with these rogue actors, and our commanders and soldiers died in that effort."

A military spokesman, Brigadier General Nabil Abdullah, dismissed the RSF's allegations as lies, saying the group and its mercenaries "committed every conceivable violation" against El Gezira's citizens.
Across Sudan, the RSF has repeatedly overwhelmed the military thanks in part to alliances forged with tribal militias and other armed groups. In July, it used El Gezira as a springboard to push into Sennar, White Nile and Gedaref states, triggering new waves of displacement and expanding the conflict through Sudan's agricultural heartland.

A fifth of the country's 50 million inhabitants have fled their homes, and around half are facing food insecurity, mainly in areas under RSF control, according to UN officials who describe the humanitarian crisis as the world's worst.

International efforts to mediate between the sides have made little headway, though the United States is leading efforts to convene talks in Geneva.

The RSF says it is open to negotiating a ceasefire and humanitarian access. The military says it cannot negotiate until the RSF exits civilian areas and stops abuses.

EYEING LOOT

The RSF has roots in so-called Janjaweed militias, which helped the military crush a rebellion in Sudan's western Darfur region two decades ago, gaining recognition as a state-sanctioned security force in 2017.
It allied with the military to oust president Omar al-Bashir in 2019, but the sides fell out over an internationally backed plan to move toward civilian rule.

When the power struggle turned violent, the RSF, led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, quickly took over greater Khartoum. The military, headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, responded with airstrikes and heavy artillery, to little effect.

The RSF then consolidated its grip across Darfur before surging into El Gezira, a refuge for half a million people displaced from Khartoum, and capturing the state capital, Wad Madani.

In Darfur, the RSF and allied militiamen engaged in ethnically targeted violence, but in El Gezira, residents said the fighters seemed convinced they were Bashir loyalists.
Some are seeking to settle grievances against a political elite that has long controlled Sudan from its center - a problem for any future truce, said Suliman Baldo of the Sudan Transparency and Policy Tracker, a US-based watchdog.

Most are eyeing loot, he and residents said.

Three sources with direct knowledge of RSF recruitment said fighters are often drawn by the promise of a share of the spoils. The RSF denies this and says its fighters are paid monthly salaries.

The force includes units from rival tribes and militias, which sometimes clash among themselves, residents said.

Fighters based in Hasaheisa, the district that includes Sharafat Alhalaween, are under the command of Ahmed Adam Gouja, who was part of a militia active in Darfur before joining the RSF at the start of the war.

This area has seen some of the harshest attacks in El Gezira, especially after salaries dried up, residents and two local RSF recruits told Reuters.

"When you ask the soldiers about Hemedti, they say, 'He gave me this gun, but we don't trust him; we don't trust his soldiers; we only trust our brothers,'" said one young man reached by phone, who like many locals asked for anonymity for fear of retribution.

He described seeing fighters cock their weapons at superiors when ordered to shut down a satellite terminal they were using to sell internet access. Asked about the incident, the RSF said it did not control the terminal or prevent people from using it.

Across the Nile River in East Gezira district, residents have been spared the worst of the violence as the RSF's top commander in the state, Abuagla Keikal, is from the area. He charges a protection tax, according to locals and activists who said fighters based in the district have clashed with Gouja's forces when they strayed over the river.

Reuters could not reach the two commanders, and the RSF did not answer questions about them.
FARMERS THREATENED

Civilians described fleeing from village to village on foot and in cars, boats, buses and donkey carts to escape RSF fighters.

First they steal cars, gold and money, more than two dozen witnesses said, returning later for items such as clothes, electronics and food, which are sold in so-called "Dagalo markets" - a reference to Hemedti.

When they find nothing, they start kidnapping people for ransom, threatening to kill them if families don't pay, according to a group of activists, the Wad Madani Resistance Committee, who document RSF raids across the state.

A committee representative, who requested anonymity for safety, said hundreds of villages have been targeted and at least 800 people killed as of April, though a telecommunications blackout makes it impossible to confirm exact numbers.

The Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa, a rights group, has documented 75 cases of sexual assault by RSF fighters in the state, said its regional director, Hala al-Karib.

At least 17 people interviewed by Reuters said they had seen beatings, often with whips, and killings during the raids.

A mother of five who sought refuge in El Gezira after fleeing Khartoum said a nephew was killed in front of her.

"They said, 'Don't lift him, or we'll shoot you too.' We had to bury him where he was," said the woman, reached by phone in Port Sudan. She gave only one name, Hanan.

RSF fighters have cleaned out stocks of wheat, sorghum and other crops and blocked farmers from their fields, according to residents and agricultural officials.

"My fields are being eaten by cows because the farmers are scared to go out," said Mohamed Balla, a farming cooperative leader from Hasaheisa.
Diesel prices have soared; fertilizer and seeds are scarce, and tractors have been stolen.

A UN-backed food security monitoring network warned in June that parts of the state were at risk of famine.

The RSF did not answer questions about the disruptions to food production but has previously blamed a military blockade imposed on the state. The military did not comment on that.

Early in the war, the RSF set up an internal police force to tackle "negative phenomena," its term for abuses. This force has arrested more than 1,000 men in El Gezira, mostly locals, the RSF told Reuters in July.

Residents said the effect was limited. In several instances, RSF police clashed with fighters, but raids did not stop, they said.

Low on ground troops, the military has tried to encourage a so-called popular resistance. Burhan said in December that 40,000 men had joined the effort in El Gezira - many of them incensed by RSF attacks on women, according to the resistance committee.

"The RSF uses this as an excuse to attack," said the committee's representative, adding that few weapons and little training have been provided to civilian recruits.

One of the worst such incidents occurred in June, near the military's last base in El Gezira.

After men in Wad al-Noura village took up arms against the RSF, its fighters killed more than 100 people there, the committee said.

The RSF described the incident as a clash with army recruits and special forces. The military did not comment, though it pledged at the time to deliver a "harsh response.”

"My husband was a teacher," a woman widowed in the incident told Reuters. "He didn't know anything about fighting, and we had nothing to fight for, no car or store. But as a man, he felt he had to fight."