Elon Musk said Starlink satellite internet service is now working at a hospital in Gaza, after months of negotiations over humanitarian exceptions to an internet blackout imposed by Israel across the war-torn region, according to the Washington Post.

Musk wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday that Starlink is now active there with the support of Israel and the United Arab Emirates, which has participated in negotiations to mitigate some of the effects of the war between Israel and Gaza. Although providing Internet service to one hospital constitutes significant progress, its limited impact reflects the Israeli government's reluctance to provide Gazans with broader Internet access, for fear that Hamas will use it in war.

“It's a small offer,” said Ken Zeta, a communications expert who has worked for the US government for about a decade securing Internet connectivity in the Palestinian territories. "It's one place."

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement last week that the United Nations is in discussions with the Israeli authorities about bringing security equipment and essential communications equipment into Gaza to ensure the safety of humanitarian workers.

“Humanitarian relief workers need communication equipment to coordinate operations and ensure the safety of teams working in an extremely dangerous environment,” the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs said.

Starlink's arrival in Gaza is the latest reflection of the growing geopolitical influence wielded by Musk, the world's richest person, through his fast-growing satellite business, which is part of SpaceX. Although Musk is known for his consumer-facing projects, such as Tesla and X, it is SpaceX that makes him one of the US government's largest contractors and an increasingly prominent player in international affairs.

Although satellites have been around for decades, Starlink has broken new ground by deploying massive numbers of small satellites into low orbit through reusable SpaceX rockets. This has made affordable high-speed satellite internet available to the masses – as well as enabling the next-level surveillance capabilities that US military and intelligence agencies contract the company to engineer.

Starlink's global reach came into focus in September, when author Walter Isaacson mentioned in his biography of Musk that the mogul had refused to operate Starlink over Crimea for Ukraine to use to launch an attack against Russian boats. While Musk disputed some of the details, he confirmed the incident in general. .

International disputes over Starlink have also extended to Iran, where the US government has supported Iranian political dissidents' use of Starlink stations to circumvent official censorship, angering Tehran. Iran has appealed to the United Nations' International Telecommunication Union to help shut down Starlink service across the country, but the US government has defended Starlink, saying in a letter reviewed by The Washington Post that it is "not required or practical" for Starlink to shut down the service. Cutting off satellite signals for entire countries at the request of foreign governments.

Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi announced in November that Musk had reached a “principled understanding” with Israel to operate Starlink in Gaza with Israeli approval, following Musk’s visit to Israel, where he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Musk's visit to the country came as he faced widespread criticism for anti-Semitic content on X, as well as his amplification of an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory on the platform, for which he later apologized.