As Israel destroys infrastructure, will Lebanon be cut off from outside world?

Lebanon could be on the brink of an internet blackout, the government has warned, as Israel's brutal assault destroys vital telecommunications infrastructure and leaves hundreds of transmission towers out of service.

Caretaker Telecommunications Minister Johnny Corm warned that Lebanon could be plunged into an internet blackout as the ariel assault on southern Lebanon, Beirut's southern suburbs, and the eastern Beqaa region intensifies after Israel launched its ground invasion in October.

To deal with this, Corm said the government was in talks with two European companies to establish an alternative satellite-based internet system, saying he could not wait for the outcome of talks with Elon Musk's SpaceX and its Starlink service to finalise.

Negotiations about rolling out Starlink services - which rely on satellites rather than terrestrial network infrastructures - hinge on "two major obstacles"; the first "security-related" and the second "commercial".

"The negotiations have evolved, initially focusing on pricing and previously negotiated discounts, as well as certain technical aspects," he told  L'Orient-Le Jour  on Monday.

"The company now claims it cannot provide us with the data and insists that we install servers in Qatar or Germany," he added, highlighting that such a requirement would violate a law which governs the protection of personal data.

Corm's comments come just days after he told LBCI TV of a very serious threat to internet services in Lebanon.

"There is a danger to the internet in Lebanon as the Lebanese airspace is open and Israeli [jets] roam in our skies as they please" which threatens cybersecurity in the country, Corm said over the weekend.

Lebanon's telecoms sector is already reeling from five years of national financial meltdown which heavily impacted maintenance and expanding infrastructure.

There were 4.7 million internet users in Lebanon at the start of 2023, in a country whose population stands at around five million - excluding the large Syrian refugee population.

Corm told LBCI that 175 transmission stations belonging to operator Touch were now out of service, with nine stations completely destroyed and 11 partially damaged.

Another 161 transmission stations, belonging to the operator Alfa, were out of service, he said, which are all situated south of Beirut, southern Lebanon, and Beqaa - areas heavily targeted by Israel's blitz of the country.

The telecoms ministry estimates losses at around $67 million, he added.

To try and avoid disrupting the school year, the telecoms ministry had reached out to Microsoft Teams to find ways of accessing applications via phone rather than internet networks.

'Incompetence is to blame'

Mohamad Najem, executive director of SMEX, a Beirut-based non-profit organisation that advocates for digital rights across the MENA region, has blamed Corm for the dire situation the country's telecommunications sector now faces, saying the minister should spend more time on fixing the problems he highlighted rather than scaremongering live on television.

"Since the war started in October last year, the minister has been telling us there will be plan A and B, and a year later, we're discovering there is no emergency plan at all," Najem said.

He questioned the number of transmission stations Corm said had been neutered by Israel's assault and cast doubts on the reasons given by the minister for them being out of service, arguing that other ministries - such as health - are still functioning despite the turmoil of war.

"He said that more than 300 stations, in total, are out of service but he said only nine were destroyed – why are the others out of service? Is this because they've run out of fuel? Why are they out of fuel? Why are the relevant authorities not working to fix this issue?" Najem told The New Arab.

"There needs to be collaboration with local authorities [in affected areas], such as municipalities and the army. They can help in providing fuel to stations which have very likely run out."

Najem said the least the government could do now was to provide shelters accommodating hundreds of thousands of displaced persons with free internet or at least increase the grid's capacity to relieve pressure on services.

"Has the internet in Beirut improved? No. In Hamra for example you have so many displaced, adding to the number of existing residents and the same in [Mount Lebanon’s] Aley. The increased consumption has made services much worse."

He said that Starlink must either adapt to Lebanese regulations in line with Telecoms Law 431 or the government must amend this legislation to allow Musk's telecoms services to be rolled out across the country.

TNA has reached out to the telecoms ministry for comment.

Human rights violation

The danger posed to Lebanon's internet services fits a wider patter seen in armed conflicts, where internet access becomes a weapon of war, says Marwa Fatafta from Access Now.

"Internet infrastructure is bombed and destroyed, and consequently people are put at further risk. People rely on the internet to access life-saving information, check on their families and loved ones, and reach emergency services," she tells TNA.

"It's also an instrumental accountability tool to document crimes and human rights abuses."

Fatafta is the MENA policy and advocacy director at Access Now, a US-based non-profit which also advocates for digital rights.

She adds that cutting people off the internet is a tormenting experience, resulting in their isolation from their communities and support networks, jeapordising both their physical and mental well-being. It is why internet has become a humanitarian necessity in wars, she says.

"Disrupting it or deliberately targeting civilian telecommunications infrastructure is a human rights violation."

While internet connections in Lebanon remain largely stable, war-torn Gaza has seen multiple blackouts since Israel's offensive began in October last year. In Sudan too, where the situation remains dire because of a war between rival military leaders, internet shutdowns have happened repeatedly.

'Unlikely scenario'

Imad Kreidieh, the chairman of the state-run operator Ogero, has said the scenario where internet services in Lebanon are shut down is "unrealistic" and transmission stations in most parts of the country are operating as normal but this does not mean the sector still does not face a series of other crises.

"There are areas where communication and the internet were completely cut off, stations were destroyed, and there are no longer civilians [in evacuated areas] to use these services. This is something we need to think about after the war," Kriedieh told TNA's sister site Almodon.

He also did not rule out that "in the event of a catastrophic scenario" it would not be possible to provide internet services to all Lebanese, with those with the financial means able to access the internet, but those living in shelters possibly left in the dark.

"[Do] we provide internet to companies to keep running the economy, or to schools, for example?" he asked.

This article was updated at 15:30 GMT on 14 November 2024 to include comments made by Marwa Fatafta.