Introduction

In the armed conflicts of today, shutting down the internet has become an increasingly common, deliberate, and systematic act of warfare. Across conflict zones, belligerent and warring parties attack telecommunications networks and ICT infrastructure, impose communications blackouts, and limit or prohibit access to equipment, fuel, and repair parts — among other disruptive tactics deployed to collectively harm, isolate, terrorize, silence, and control entire populations.

According to #KeepItOn coalition data, armed conflict was the leading trigger globally for internet shutdowns in 2023 and 2024. This dangerous development demands serious attention. Whether in Ukraine or Myanmar, Ethiopia or** **Azerbaijan, Sudan or Gaza, internet shutdowns exacerbate people’s suffering. For people trapped amid rubble or under siege, connectivity is a literal lifeline, without which they cannot contact emergency services, locate missing family members, document human rights violations, or access vital, sometimes life-saving information.

Yet these harms remain largely invisible, underestimated, or dismissed. Internet shutdowns in wartime, and their human impacts, are being treated as inevitable, even expected outcomes of lawful warfare, instead of being understood as deliberate, unlawful acts of warfare and repression. This misconception fosters impunity and leaves civilians more vulnerable.

This report aims to unpack the serious harms that internet shutdowns inflict on civilian populations in armed conflict. Drawing on testimonies collected from Gaza and Sudan over the past two years, we have mapped and classified an array of direct and indirect human rights abuses and violations caused by internet shutdowns, demonstrating why safeguarding connectivity in conflict zones should be urgently re-evaluated as a priority for protecting civilians and their dignity.

Internet shutdowns in Gaza and Sudan: a recap

Deliberate disruptions to connectivity during armed conflict can take different forms; from direct attacks on ICT infrastructure and repair crews, cyberattacks, throttling, and restrictions on mobile data, to blocking the import and installation of communications equipment or access to the fuel needed to run telecommunications networks. Irrespective of how these shutdowns occur, the result is often the same: cutting off populations from communication, information, and assistance, as a means of asserting control. Nowhere has this been clearer in the past few years than in Gaza and Sudan, where the destruction of telecommunications infrastructure has cut off millions of people.

Since October 2023, Gaza’s telecommunications infrastructure has been repeatedly targeted and destroyed during Israeli military operations, with the entire Gaza Strip, home to more than two million people, plunged into** **complete blackouts on several occasions. These outages often coincided with intensified military operations and bombardments, as well as attacks on journalists, media institutions, and humanitarian workers.

Civilian buildings housing internet service providers (ISPs) were among the first to be targeted by Israel, resulting in a sharp drop in connectivity. In October 2023, we gathered data showing how 15 of the 19 providers operating in Gaza faced complete shutdowns of their mobile and broadband services, with internet traffic across Gaza decreasing by over 80% that month. In total, we documented 16 confirmed shutdowns in Gaza in 2023, a further six in 2024, and at least five shutdowns to date in 2025.

In the past two years, fiber cables have been severed, network towers have been destroyed, and fuel blockades have thrown into disarray even the most basic communications. Local providers and ISPs such as Paltel** and Jawwal have worked against impossible odds to restore minimal service amid bombardments, with several repair workers losing their lives on the job. Desperate civilians, journalists, and aid workers have improvised lifelines, using eSIMs, Israeli and Egyptian SIM cards, and other initiatives **to make their voices heard and to maintain family and social links.

Amid the ongoing war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan, internet shutdowns have served a different but equally destructive purpose. Both sides have weaponized internet access, cutting connectivity to tighten control over territories and places where each party has a stronghold, and in a likely effort to obscure human rights atrocities and crimes. Each blackout has sent millions into sudden silence, unable to access banking services, coordinate and deliver aid, or even confirm that their loved ones are safe.

The circumstances surrounding these blackouts suggest that they did not result from technical failures. When fighting erupted between the SAF and RSF in Khartoum on April 15, 2023, the SAF immediately ordered telecommunications providers to shut down services nationwide. A second nationwide blackout was imposed just hours before a 72-hour ceasefire went into effect on the night of April 24 — amid** claims by the SAF that the RSF had occupied **the Sudatel data center in Khartoum, causing a full network outage. As violence surged across Darfur and Khartoum in 2023, entire communities went off grid. The situation escalated further in early February 2024, when the RSF seized control of ISPs in Khartoum, triggering a prolonged internet shutdown that left two-thirds of the population out of reach for more than a month. That same year, warring parties imposed at least four shutdowns, all of which coincided with grave human rights abuses.

In both Gaza and Sudan, patterns of internet shutdowns point to deliberate attempts by warring parties to weaponize internet access as a means and method of warfare.

Internet shutdowns as a weapon of war: a typology of harms

Since 2016, Access Now and the #KeepItOn coalition’s documentation of internet shutdowns’ serious harms has helped to solidify international consensus that shutdowns are incompatible with human rights. From silencing dissent to providing cover for state brutality and abuse, shutdowns are now widely recognized as a precursor for human rights violations and atrocities, and even as relevant evidence for determining a plan or policy to commit crimes against humanity. In situations of armed conflict, the harms that civilian populations are exposed to during internet shutdowns are more pronounced — and can be fatal.

Yet, as mentioned in our introduction, such harms remain overlooked in humanitarian, accountability, and policymaking circles, while the practice of intentionally disrupting civilian connectivity in conflict has been normalized. Internet access continues to be perceived as a “nice-to-have” luxury, rather than something that is increasingly indispensable for the survival of civilians living through humanitarian crises.

This report aims to map, as concretely as possible, the tangible ways in which internet shutdowns harm people in conflict zones. To this end,** between February and May 2024, we collected more than 120 testimonies from affected individuals and communities in Gaza and Sudan. These accounts come from journalists, lawyers, students, doctors, homemakers, construction workers, teachers, and others who have endured internet shutdowns amid active armed conflict. Based on their evidence, we propose a typology of harms that captures the concrete impacts that shutdowns during armed conflict have on civilians. We have identified five distinct forms of direct civilian harm** — physical, psychological, economic, civil and political, and **societal **— even if such harms often overlap or feed into each in reality.

You can read more about how we collected testimonies and categorized harms in our methodology note, alongside the testimonies which we have consent to publish. All testimonies have been anonymized to ensure the safety of affected individuals. We would like to thank everyone who volunteered to share their experiences with us, especially given the ongoing precarious situations in both Gaza and Sudan; we stand in solidarity with you all.

1. Physical harms

Internet shutdowns can severely harm people’s physical safety** **and wellbeing, resulting, whether directly or indirectly, in death, illness, or injury. According to #KeepitOn data, as well as academic research, internet shutdowns increasingly occur alongside episodes of violence, as states use shutdowns to mask indiscriminate attacks against people.

When communication blackouts block civilians’ access to information, it undermines their situational awareness, placing them in harm’s way or forcing them to make life-threatening decisions. Individuals in both Gaza and Sudan have reported unknowingly taking unsafe routes that saw them inadvertently enter areas under sniper fire or close to military positions. Others faced a situation of decision paralysis, not knowing what was happening around them. Some people told us of being unable to leave their homes due to lack of information about active fighting zones, only to come under direct bombardment mere hours or days later. This affected people’s ability to search for food, water, or medicine, as they were forced to stay home in the absence of reliable information about where the military or snipers might be stationed.

During periods of intense bombardment, the lack of connectivity prevented people from calling for help or reporting missing persons, while also hindering emergency teams from reaching the injured or rescuing those trapped under the rubble. According to one testimony, the paramedics of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, for example, were unable to identify specific bombing locations due to the shutdowns; having instead to guess where bombing was taking place based on the sounds they heard. This not only has hindered their work but also has put their own lives at risk. The inability to contact emergency services has impeded the provision of life-saving assistance at the site of bombardments and attacks, leading to death and injury, but also forcing individuals to travel through bombardments or unsafe terrain in search of medical help.

The testimonies we collected from people in Gaza and Sudan consistently describe shutdowns as a direct threat to their survival. In Sudan, where millions rely on online banking applications to purchase basic necessities including food, water, and medicine, the direct link between internet shutdowns and survival could not be any clearer. When the country’s main banking app, “Bankak,” went offline, people reported having to reduce their daily meal portions, while others told us that losing access to the internet, and consequently to their cash, has put their families “on the brink of starvation.” The risk of starvation is aggravated by the fact that, as UN bodies have warned, shutdowns also disrupt and sometimes fully halt the coordination and distribution of life-saving humanitarian aid to affected communities.

**Internet shutdowns can also be an aggravating factor in forced displacement, creating so-called internet refugees. **In Gaza, people were forced to relocate not only to escape violence, but also to regain access to telecommunications, which they described as essential for their survival and resilience.

Furthermore, **the deliberate targeting of civilian internet access points — another means of disrupting communications — has **exposed people, including telecom engineers and repair crews, to direct attack, with witnesses in Gaza reporting civilian homes with cell towers on their rooftops or in close proximity to neighborhood switchboards or internet access points being bombed. Meanwhile, even just trying to connect to the internet can become a life-threatening action. Reports documented numerous instances where people climbing elevated structures or venturing closer to military checkpoints to find a mobile signal were directly targeted, detained, or killed.

k., unemployed, jabalia refugee camp, gaza / Shutdown started: november 3, 2023

**“Our main struggle during the communications blackout was our inability to access news and find out about what was happening around us. We did not expect to experience such anxiety. We heard gunfire around us but did not know what was happening. On November 19, artillery shells began to rain down on the area where we live. When a shell hit our house, I was injured. My brothers tried to call an ambulance, but there was no connectivity. They took me to hospital in our neighbor’s car despite their fear of the bombing, but this delayed my arrival and in the end, my right leg was amputated.”

M.A., pharmacist, Shendi, Sudan / Shutdown started: February 3, 2024

“I have no idea what is happening outside. In Sudan, the internet has been completely cut off in all states. We are socially isolated. Due to the war, banking transactions have shifted to online applications because of the cash shortage. Now, with the internet shutdown, we are on the brink of starvation — we can’t even buy food or medicine.”

2. Psychological harms

In the fog of war, connectivity is a lifeline. It enables people to maintain family and social links, access information, continue to work or study, and make decisions essential to their survival. When this lifeline is severed by internet blackouts or communication disruptions, individuals are plunged into intense psychological distress. This can be marked by, among other symptoms, extreme anxiety, fear of death or bodily injury, confusion, social isolation, powerlessness, sleeplessness, loss of sense of time or self, and the inability to complete daily activities or make decisions.

Internet shutdowns terrorize civilian populations. For many of the people who shared their experiences, shutdowns were perceived not merely as technical failures or collateral damage, but as harbingers of danger, looming atrocities, or imminent attacks, which contributed to their terrorization and extreme fear. The testimonies from Gaza and Sudan described the impact of shutdowns as “collective punishment,” “psychological torture,” or “psychological warfare.” Several individuals in Gaza likened the anguish of internet blackouts to the terror they experienced during direct bombings. Impacted individuals have, justifiably and explicitly, questioned the intention behind these shutdowns, which they could only understand to be a method of warfare aimed at both harming individuals and breaking society as a whole.

In both Gaza and Sudan, family members have been brutally separated from one another, with parents not knowing the whereabouts or status of their children, or vice versa, for months. During communications blackouts and intensifying violence, many people also went missing. In contexts of forced displacement, violence, and chaos, losing contact with family members and being unable to find out if they are alive and safe is particularly traumatizing.

Furthermore, internet access can enable people living through conflict to continue with their work or education, which helps to maintain a perceived or temporary sense of stability and hope. This is critical for people’s resilience and survival. Students in both Gaza and Sudan expressed their wish to continue studying despite the violence, displacement, starvation, and extreme trauma they were experiencing. Internet shutdowns deprive people from accessing these vital coping mechanisms; one study from Gaza, for example, found that difficulties faced by university students in accessing the internet to resume their education online during the latest war was significantly associated with high levels of anxiety and depression.

The intensity of psychological distress is closely tied to the duration and scope of these disruptions; the longer and more comprehensive a shutdown is, the deeper the anxiety, confusion, and despair it inflicts on people. This heightened stress and anxiety can then in turn drive people to desperate measures, such as venturing through areas under attack to catch connectivity signals, locate loved ones, or obtain information.

s., teacher, gaza city, gaza / Shutdown started: november 16 2023

“Shutdowns were the other face of the war on Gaza; no less ferocious than the bombing and destruction. I will never forget when I heard on local radio that a house bearing my family’s name was bombed. Who can bear having no news about their family who are far away, at a time when going out in the streets is impossible?

*I wanted to check on them but my husband stopped me because of the bombing and the danger of traveling long distances alone in those circumstances. It was a heart-wrenching night as the internet and telecommunications were shut down…The pain was excruciating: did the bombing target my family’s house? Are they okay? *

In the morning, when I went to my family’s house despite the bombing and destruction, I found that my family’s house was indeed destroyed. My brother was martyred and my sister injured, while the rest of the family miraculously survived.”

z., doctor, khartoum, Sudan / Shutdown started: February 7, 2024

“I lost contact with all my family members who are in militia-controlled areas. I take sedatives just to be able to sleep.”

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a.y.o, pharmacist, undisclosed location, sudan / Shutdown started: February 5, 2024

“My elderly father, who has chronic illnesses, was traveling alone from an RSF-occupied area to a safe state, in order to complete visa procedures. Due to the blackout, we couldn’t complete the visa process or contact him. It has been five days, and we have no news. His ticket for February 9 has been lost. He has no money, no companion, and no knowledge of where he is. We can’t even send him funds via Bankak. I am devastated and unable to eat, sleep, or do anything.”

3. Economic or financial harms

Internet shutdowns directly impact people’s work and livelihoods during both war and peacetime; individuals may lose out on work, income, or access to money, while communities suffer broader and longer-lasting economic impacts. But the financial or economic harms caused by conflict-related shutdowns are particularly egregious, given how people living through war are often forcibly displaced, surviving in desperate and inhumane conditions, or experiencing hunger and starvation, exploitation, limited resources, and soaring prices for everyday necessities.

Prior to October 2023, Israel’s restrictions on the movement of goods, money, and people into and out of Gaza made the internet an economic lifeline for Gazans experiencing soaring and persistent unemployment rates. But by December 2024, with 74% of Gaza’s fixed and mobile communication networks already destroyed, many found themselves jobless and without a source of income. An estimated** **35,000 tech workers in Gaza were made redundant in the first month of the war, while the total unemployment rate surged to over 79% by December 2023. A cash shortage saw people in Gaza turning to digital payment apps and e-wallet accounts, which then became inaccessible during internet shutdowns.

Similarly in Sudan, cash scarcity, looting, and the destruction of banking infrastructure, has pushed people to use digital apps to transfer cash, buy necessities, and receive remittances from abroad. Chief among these is the Bank of Khartoum’s app “Bankak,” which saw an 85% surge in app activations during the war. Several of the people we interviewed spoke of their reliance on Bankak as the only way to pay for essentials — a lifeline that was then cut during shutdowns.

Such economic harms affect civilians both psychologically and physically, depriving them of the ability to buy food, water, or medicine, and placing them at heightened risk of starvation and illness.

t., private sector employee, gaza city, gaza / Shutdown started: november 9 2023

“I lost my job because of the shutdown in Gaza city. Five months have gone by, and I am still unable to work, and I find myself having financial troubles. The shutdown also prevents me from receiving remittances sent by my brother living abroad. How would banks and exchange offices operate without internet access? The communications blackout is another kind of war; a war against access to work, a war that nourishes fear and angst.”

a.b., laborer, undisclosed location / Shutdown started: February 6, 2024

“Without the internet, I can’t send money to my family. My mother has diabetes and needs medication, while my father has diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure. They don’t even have enough money for food. I am deeply worried and don’t know how they are surviving.”

4. Civil and political harms

Internet shutdowns interfere with people’s ability to exercise the right to seek, receive, and impart information. In situations of armed conflict, the internet is an indispensable tool for people to express themselves, access information, document and disseminate their lived experiences, record evidence of atrocities or abuse, mobilize for collective action, report missing relatives, fundraise, and share life-saving tips and resources.

These harms are intensified when press access to conflict zones is limited. Israel’s barring of foreign journalists from Gaza has seen Palestinians — professional journalists, social media influencers, photographers, and everyday citizens — turning to social media to document their realities in real-time, and to draw international attention to the atrocities being perpetrated against them. Likewise in Sudan, where 90% of the country’s media infrastructure has been destroyed, and many journalists displaced or exiled, shutdowns have deepened the country’s “information vacuum” and global isolation. The collapse of internet and telecommunications infrastructure has forced** Sudan’s journalists to continue their work unprotected and **under threat of abduction and enforced disappearance, killing, arbitrary arrests, torture, and sexual violence. In the absence of reliable media information, people in Sudan are relying on social media to find out about safe routes or search for missing loved ones.

Meanwhile, the shutdowns also hinder international human rights and humanitarian organizations from monitoring and documenting the situation, or from providing situational updates.

m., teacher, rafah city, gaza / Shutdown started: january 4 2024

“My father suffers from cancer and his health condition has worsened, especially when we heard about the hospitals being stormed. I constantly wondered how he was doing because I couldn’t reach him…During the 10-day communications shutdown, we were completely isolated from the outside world and had no information about what was happening in the Gaza Strip. We relied on journalists to answer our questions and worried greatly if they told us about airstrikes in close proximity to where our families were. It never occurred to me that we would be unjustifiably deprived of such a basic right as communication. Amid a raging war, the least we can do is stay in touch with our loved ones, but by attacking telephone switchboards and disconnecting the internet, that’s exactly what the Israeli occupation prevented us from doing. The outage even prevented me from transferring money to family members in northern Gaza suffering from starvation, food scarcity, and skyrocketing prices. People were prevented from receiving much-needed financial assistance during the most difficult of times.”

m., doctor, Gezira State, Khartoum, Sudan / Shutdown started: February 24, 2025

“I couldn’t contact my family outside Sudan, and they were very worried. We were cut off from the world in a terrible way. We had no idea what was happening outside; all we could hear were the terrifying, loud sounds of clashes.”

5. societal harms

Internet shutdowns also cause long-term, cumulative harms across entire societies. Losing connection to one’s family and friends not only causes conflict-affected individuals severe psychological distress, fear, and anxiety; it also undermines social order. Internet shutdowns disrupt fundamental social connections, break down familial and social support systems, and lead to social isolation and the loss of community ties — all elements that are essential for social cohesion and collective resilience.

Community resilience is further undermined by the spread of misinformation and disinformation, which thrives in the absence of reliable information caused by communication blackouts; a tried and tested method for warring parties to control narratives and information flows. Disinformation is a serious protection risk, which poses a threat to societal cohesion, aggravates violence, undermines peacebuilding efforts, and subjects civilians to further harm.

Additionally, prolonged internet shutdowns have severe and far-reaching socioeconomic consequences that may persist long after connectivity is restored. Economic recovery** **following such blackouts is often slow and difficult, especially when internet infrastructure is damaged or destroyed.

Likewise, internet shutdowns deny people the opportunity to resume their work or education, both of which are key for ensuring wider social and economic stability. In Gaza, which used to have one of the highest education rates in the region, 97% of schools have been damaged or destroyed, all universities** have been destroyed, and more than half a million children have been out of formal education for over two years. Internet shutdowns have contributed to this systematic “scholasticide” since students, educators, and humanitarian organizations have been unable to rely on the internet **to continue teaching and learning online. With almost half of Gaza’s population under the age of 18, the impact of such education loss is incalculable, and without reliable solutions, the UN has repeatedly warned that we are likely to see a “lost generation” of children.

In Sudan, the situation is equally dire, with 80% of all children out of school. Wartime internet shutdowns, compounded by a preexisting digital divide and fragile digital infrastructure, have severely limited opportunities for remote learning. UNICEF estimates that education losses could result in a net lifetime income loss of USD $26 billion for the war-affected generation of children.

Over time, internet shutdowns weaken societies’ long-term resilience by reducing overall human capital, limiting economic growth, diminishing civic participation, and perpetuating intergenerational cycles of poverty and inequality. These intergenerational harms demand more extensive empirical research and study in order to accurately capture the impact of wartime internet shutdowns on individuals and society as a whole.

f., lawyer, Jabalia refugee camp, Gaza / Shutdown started: october 19 2023

“The communications blackout had a significant impact on my family, especially my sick mother, whose mental state deteriorated as a result. During the last ten days of October, we began to experience significant difficulties in communicating and found it difficult to contact our relatives. With the start of the ground invasion and difficulties of moving around, we began to experience a different kind of war, with the communications blackout allowing rumors to spread at an unimaginable rate. We heard many stories circulating, and the biggest problem was that we could not refute them because we did not know what was really going on around us. After a few days, the real news became clear, and we realized that what we had heard was false. We wondered who was spreading these rumors that served Israel’s interests.”

a., student, Dongola, Sudan / Shutdown started: February 7, 2024

“I can’t contact my family or friends, and I need to get a birth certificate, but there’s no way now. Before the blackout, my friend traveled in this dangerous situation to take her university exam online. Now she can’t communicate with me or her family, and she couldn’t take the test. Before the blackout, she told me she was afraid of communication interruptions, especially since the country is unsafe.”

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Em12, student, Khartoum / Shutdown started: February 6, 2024

“The internet shutdown in Sudan has left my family disconnected, and I have no news about them. I haven’t been able to live my normal life since the internet was cut off. It was a deliberate act by rebel forces against Sudan. People can’t obtain passports or travel permits since everything was previously linked to the internet. My university switched to remote learning after the war, and now, with the internet shutdown, classes have stopped without any warning. This endangers people’s lives in terms of education, healthcare, and much more.”

Civilian internet must be better protected during war and conflict

Internet shutdowns have become a recurring feature of armed conflict, weaponized as deliberate acts of warfare** and **control, and deployed when civilian connectivity is most essential and their human cost is most devastating. Yet far greater legal, humanitarian, and scholarly attention is needed to establish robust protections for civilian internet access during hostilities.

It is now broadly accepted that internet shutdowns are unlawful, given their sweeping and disproportionate interference with a wide range of human rights, including the rights to freedom of expression and assembly, life, security, health, education, work, family life, and food. However, the law of armed conflict has not kept pace. The absence of clear normative guardrails leaves the protection of and access to civilian digital infrastructure open to discretion, thereby eroding civilian protection. **International humanitarian law (IHL) must therefore be recalibrated to expand the assessment of shutdowns’ legality beyond the narrow lens of whether or not they constitute attacks under IHL. **Shutdowns should be assessed in light of the systemic and disproportionate harms they cause to civilians, which are difficult to reconcile with the principles of distinction, proportionality, precaution, and humanity, even in situations where attacking digital infrastructure might be militarily justified.

Shutdowns impede humanitarian and medical operations, terrorize civilians, amount to collective punishment, and render useless objects indispensable to civilian survival — all prohibited under IHL. Existing protections** for communications infrastructure used by humanitarian and medical actors should therefore be extended to encompass the broader civilian internet infrastructure on which people depend**. An embryonic form of recognition lies in the Global Protection Cluster’s framework, which lists “disinformation and denial of access to information” as a protection risk. However, it treats the loss of access to information mainly as a side effect of disinformation, overlooking the far more common cause: internet shutdowns and communications disruptions.

Internet shutdowns are also increasingly associated with atrocity crimes and grave human rights abuses. In 2024, when a staggering total of 103 shutdowns were conflict-related, 72 shutdowns** were linked to grave human rights abuses and violence. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has previously considered **disruptions to telecommunications as evidence of state policy in its analysis of crimes against humanity, yet accountability for shutdown-related abuses remains rare.

Given the central role that connectivity plays in enabling civilian functions such as access to food or banking, and the provision of humanitarian assistance, it is no longer tenable, nor is it acceptable, to treat internet access as a peripheral concern. Protecting civilian digital infrastructure and internet access requires a multi-stakeholder approach involving states, international bodies, private actors, and civil society. Ensuring and restoring access demands resilient technical solutions, political commitment, and sustained financing. Internet access should be integrated into mediation, ceasefire, and peace negotiations, with parties pressed to restore services under their control, while governments and humanitarian actors and their donors must fund alternative access mechanisms such as satellite links, WiMAX, and e-SIM technologies, among other solutions that restore connectivity for the wider civilian population. In the longer term, building resilient, secure, and independent digital infrastructure that can withstand future disruptions must be central to post-conflict reconstruction.

The protection of civilian internet access must be codified and enforced, recognizing that digital infrastructure is now a fundamental element of civilian protection under international law.