About Gaza Online

Access to connectivity is increasingly recognized as a foundational requirement for modern life. It enables individuals and institutions to communicate, learn, deliver healthcare, participate in economic activity, and engage in civic systems. When access is disrupted, these systems stall — not because capability disappears, but because the ability to participate is constrained. In times of crisis, connectivity becomes essential infrastructure, not a convenience.

In Gaza, connectivity is persistently constrained by physical damage, restrictions, and systemic fragility. Even where infrastructure exists, access is often unreliable, uneven, or unavailable to large segments of the population, limiting the capacity of individuals, institutions, and civil society to operate consistently.

Gaza Online exists to address this structural constraint. Our focus is not only on restoring access during acute emergencies, but on addressing the structural conditions that prevent reliable connectivity across disruption, recovery, and longer-term continuity.

Gaza Online has built a humanitarian connectivity platform designed to operate under conditions of disruption, constraint, and uncertainty. What began as an urgent effort to restore access during widespread connectivity collapse has evolved into a a set of integrated systems designed to function under extreme constraints and evolving conditions.

Our work today is organized across four core programs:

Smart Distribution for Individuals

We operate a fair, efficient, and automated system that enables individuals in Gaza to access internet connectivity based on need, eligibility, and available resources. Today, this access is primarily delivered through a virtual roaming network accessible via eSIMs, allowing connectivity to be provisioned independently of local infrastructure. The system is designed to scale, adapt to changing conditions, and ensure equitable access under extreme constraints.

Partnerships with Civil Society

Through our partnership program, Gaza Online supports organizations and initiatives operating in Gaza — including educators, healthcare providers, journalists, and community programs — by providing them with reliable access to connectivity. This enables partners to deliver their own services more effectively, while strengthening the broader development ecosystem through coordinated, networked access rather than isolated efforts.

Shared Infrastructure

Gaza Online’s infrastructure is built to be shared. By offering access to our systems, tools, and network capabilities to other initiatives working toward the same mission, we reduce duplication and enable faster, more coordinated delivery across the ecosystem—multiplying and accelerating impact.

Extending the Mission Globally

Through our Travel Storefront, Gaza Online extends its mission to a global audience. The same technology that sustains connectivity in Gaza also enables travelers to stay connected, with proceeds directly supporting free and subsidized connectivity for people in Gaza.

Gaza Online operates as a technology platform with a strong emphasis on reliability, fairness, and accountability. Our systems are designed to function under constrained and volatile conditions while adhering to clearly defined rules, safeguards, and oversight.

Connectivity is provisioned through structured workflows that balance need, availability, and operational constraints. Requests are reviewed and fulfilled through automated and semi-automated processes aligned with eligibility criteria, acceptable use standards, and anti-abuse safeguards. These controls are designed to ensure equitable access while protecting the integrity of the platform.

For institutional and partner-supported use, Gaza Online provides distribution systems, and technical tools that enable organizations operating in Gaza to support their staff and beneficiaries within Gaza Online’s managed connectivity framework. Partners retain responsibility for their own programs and for ensuring that connectivity is used in alignment with their mission, Gaza Online’s Terms of Use, and applicable laws.

Across all operations, Gaza Online adheres to formal policies governing data responsibility, privacy, acceptable use, and compliance with applicable sanctions regimes and international law. We design our processes to minimize data collection, protect sensitive information, and actively monitor for misuse, with clear mechanisms to suspend or revoke access when violations are identified.

Gaza Online’s work centers on the design, delivery, and long-term stewardship of connectivity infrastructure. Providing access to reliable connectivity — and maintaining the systems that make it possible — is central to our humanitarian mandate.

To carry out this mandate, Gaza Online develops and operates a shared connectivity platform that serves multiple contexts. Connectivity for people in Gaza is provided free or subsidized to ensure access where disruption and need are greatest. The same platform also delivers connectivity through paid services for organizations and individuals across different operational contexts, including initiatives that integrate our infrastructure into their own programs and global travelers using our network while abroad.

Research, platform development, and operational refinement are integral to this work. Resources generated through paid services, alongside philanthropic support, are reinvested into maintaining and improving the platform, expanding capacity, and sustaining free and subsidized access in Gaza.

This model allows Gaza Online to operate with continuity and independence, scale responsibly, and uphold strong governance standards while remaining focused on its humanitarian purpose.

Gaza Online’s future work is guided by continuity and depth rather than expansion for its own sake. As connectivity needs evolve, we are focused on strengthening and extending the infrastructure we have built so it can support a wider range of access models while remaining resilient under prolonged disruption.

This includes ongoing research and experimentation across different models of connectivity delivery, spanning individual, shared, and institutional access, as well as exploring alternative access pathways designed to function under varying conditions of disruption. Together, these efforts are intended to broaden access and reinforce resilience across multiple layers of connectivity.

We also evaluate adjacent digital services that depend on reliable connectivity as a foundation for communication, coordination, and economic participation, particularly in contexts where these capabilities remain structurally constrained.

Any future development will be informed by operational readiness, policy alignment, and demonstrated need, and pursued incrementally rather than through rapid scale. Our aim is to steward connectivity infrastructure that can adapt across crisis, recovery, and longer-term continuity — remaining reusable, resilient, and responsibly governed as conditions change.