For Gazans, international electronic SIM cards serve as window to world

GAZA CITY, Palestine

Muhammad Al-Ghazali, stood at the highest point on Al-Rashid Street in the central Gaza Strip, to receive an internet signal and communicate with his friends and relatives abroad.

Residents of the besieged enclave are facing a devastating war aggravated by their inability to contact ambulance and emergency teams after Israel cut off communications nine times since Oct. 7.

Ghazali, who was displaced from Gaza City, is forced to walk a long distance every day to Al-Rashid Street to use the internet via an electronic SIM card (eSIM).

The eSIM is a communication chip built into a phone or smart device that allows users to use two or more phone numbers at the same time without the need to use a traditional SIM card.

Palestinians in the blockaded strip are using eSIM cards to override Israel’s communication and internet cutoffs.

Obtaining an eSIM card requires an individual located outside Palestine to purchase the chip from one of the Arab or international telecommunications companies, provided that it has an international roaming service.

Solution to connectivity issues

“The eSIM card helps us overcome the problem of the frequent interruption of communications and the internet, through which Israel is trying to isolate Gaza from the world,” Ghazali, 23, told Anadolu.

“Almost on a daily basis, I talk to my expatriate relatives who check in to find out news about us, Gazans, and the ongoing war,” he added.

Since Jan. 12, Gaza has been witnessing a near-complete communications blackout.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned that communication and internet outages in Gaza could provide a cover for atrocities and generate impunity, while further undermining humanitarian efforts.

Window to world

Hassouna Al-Sakafi uses an eSIM at his job in the Public Relations and Media Unit in the Gaza Municipality.

“We use these types of cards to access the internet, transmit field images of Gaza City, and deliver the municipality’s message to the world,” Sakafi told Anadolu.

“If it were not for the eSIM cards, the Palestinians would have been completely cut off from the outside world,” he said, noting that “no one would have known about the Israeli crimes committed in the Gaza Strip and the extent of the massive destruction occurring here."

In November of last year, Palestinian Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technology Ishaq Sidr appealed to Egypt to activate the roaming service and communications stations near the Gaza border.

In a recent radio interview with the Ramallah-based Ajyal Radio, Sidr confirmed that they are waiting for a response from the Egyptian side to the Palestinian request.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi in Ankara