RAMALLAH, (Xinhua) -- Palestinian Minister of Communications and Information Technologies Yitzhak Sidr announced today (Thursday) Palestinian endeavors to obtain frequencies of the fourth and fifth generations of wireless communications for mobile phones (4G) and (5G).

Sidr said during a meeting with the Lithuanian ambassador to the Palestinian Territories, Bertas Venkaites, in the city of Ramallah, that the Palestinian side began moving to obtain the frequencies of the fourth and fifth generations, accusing Israel of procrastinating in the file "without justification."

Sidr added that obtaining fourth and fifth generation frequencies is a human right adopted by the international community in all international forums, stressing the quest to obtain continuous international support so that we can obtain our right to access telecommunications services and the Internet to achieve the goals of sustainable development 2030.

The Palestinian declaration came a day after the World Telecommunication Development Conference 2022 adopted, at the end of its work yesterday (Wednesday), Resolution No. 18 regarding Palestine, which calls for providing urgent assistance to Palestine to obtain the required frequency spectrum resources and manage them to operate the fourth and fifth generation networks.

The resolution calls for addressing technical issues and overcoming the challenges of introducing new technologies, enhancing technical assistance provided to Palestine to develop the communications and information technology sector, and the need to implement e-health, education, e-government, and spectrum planning and management projects.

Sidr pointed out that the coronavirus disease crisis revealed an urgent need to obtain fourth and fifth generation services in all sectors, especially educational, health and economic.

He stressed that the Palestinian government, despite the scarcity of capabilities, has moved forward in meeting the needs of citizens and connecting those who are not connected to communication services.

And Palestinians in the West Bank began using the third generation wireless communication system for mobile phones (3G) in January 2018, after waiting for about 12 years of negotiations with Israel.

The (3G) technology allows the use of programs on the phone without the need for wireless Internet service, such as browsers and programs for visual, audio and written conversations from anywhere, provided that there are network frequencies that provide this feature.

Israel, which controls the crossings of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, refuses to grant Palestinian cellular companies the necessary frequencies to provide the third and fourth generations (3G and 4G) of modern communication technologies, or to agree to import equipment to operate them.

Palestinian officials repeatedly accused Israel of using security and economic excuses to continue imposing restrictions on the development of the Palestinian telecommunications sector.

The (Oslo) Interim Peace Agreement signed by the Palestine Liberation Organization with Israel in 1993, under which the Palestinian Authority was established, stipulated that the Palestinian frequency spectrum would remain under Israeli administration during the transitional period that ended in 1999.

In September 2012, the Palestinians had previously obtained a decision from the International Telecommunication Union to send a committee to investigate the problem of Israel's refusal to grant them advanced radio frequencies without this being translated into reality.