Historically, online spaces have been more restricted and difficult to access in Palestine than in other countries. This is largely due to interference with available technology, online censorship, and surveillance, including:

• Israel’s long-standing ban on technology upgrades means that people can only access slow, unreliable 2G service in Gaza and 3G in the West Bank.
• Unequal content moderation practices, including by Meta, that disproportionately suppress Palestinian and Arabic-language content, leading to civil society calls to #StopSilencingPalestine.
• Pervasive online surveillance including the use of biometric surveillance technologies and the targeting of Palestinian human rights defenders’ mobile devices with notorious Pegasus spyware, making digital communication unsafe for members of civil society and Palestinians at large.
• Previous military offensives in Gaza, where vital civilian internet infrastructure was repeatedly targeted, leading to near-complete internet blackouts.

Since the Israeli siege on Gaza escalated, access to internet and telecommunications services have been severely limited. This is a result of attacks on civilian infrastructure, fuel depletion, and deliberate shutdowns by Israeli authorities, including:

• Al–Watan Tower, a building that houses media offices and serves as a hub for internet service providers has been targeted by Israeli airstrikes. 
• The offices of two other ISPs, Paltel and Jawwal, were also destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.
• Based on our analysis of available data, as of October 31, 15 of the 19 providers operating in Gaza were facing a complete shutdown of their mobile and broadband services, and the internet traffic across Gaza had decreased by over 80%.
• As of November 20, there had been four full communication blackouts in Gaza: on October 27-29, November 1, November 5, and on November 16 as Paltel announced the shutdown of their services in Gaza due to fuel depletion.

Civil society has issued 25 recommendations for parties to the conflict, international organizations, global leaders, private sector actors, and other international stakeholders in support of an immediate physical and digital ceasefire. Individuals can support by holding their home governments accountable for responding to these calls to action, speaking out in support of a ceasefire, seeking out trustworthy news sources, and amplifying the voices of Palestinians who are being silenced online.