FORCED to flee his home yet again as war raged in the Gaza Strip, Khalil Salim was desperate to get his family to safety, but how could he be sure he wasn't leading them deeper into danger?
He needed up-to-date information and went online to check out the social media accounts of the Israeli army and other online sources.
When he could not get a signal or a connection, he was left in the dark, with no sure way of plotting a safe route.
"What was pitiful is that (the Israeli army) would put instructions on their Facebook and we wouldn't even have Internet.
"It would be very difficult for us to find out that there were instructions to do this and not that.
"Sometimes we would spend two days, or a week, without Internet."
In the rubble of Gaza, it can be difficult and dangerous to get online, but tech activists and Palestinian engineers are making sure the enclave does not go totally dark.
Preserving this connection comes at a price and the risks can be deadly for desperate users clambering to high ground to get a signal or engineers travelling to dangerous areas to repair damaged cables or telecoms towers.
In May, an Israeli strike hit a gathering of people outside a Gaza City shop that provides an Internet signal for customers, killing at least three people and wounding more than 20, medics said.
Israel launched its offensive on Gaza after Hamas fighters attacked southern Israel on Oct 7, killing 1,200 people and capturing 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Almost 40,000 people have since been killed in Israeli strikes with thousands more bodies feared buried under the rubble.
Gaza's economy and infrastructure have been devastated by months of relentless bombing and conflict.
Around 70 per cent of the infrastructure needed for communication and technology has been damaged or destroyed.
Tech entrepreneurs outside Gaza are using electronic SIMs, or eSIMs, to strengthen Gaza's frayed digital lifeline.
An eSIM gives users the option of activating a mobile network's cellular data plan without actually having a physical SIM card.
They can be activated using a QR code, allowing users to connect in roaming mode to a foreign network.
Gaza Online, a volunteer group, provides free eSIMs to families to help them stay connected.
The group relies on in-kind donations of eSIM activation codes and matches them with families in Gaza through WhatsApp.
An eSIM allowed Salim to oversee the evacuation of his daughter, who was wounded in an Israeli bombing in October, to Egypt and then Tunisia. He was also able to advise doctors on her care.
Nadine Hassan, Gaza Online's chief operating officer based in Jordan, said her group's work is becoming "more challenging every day".
The group has been finding it increasingly difficult to buy eSIMs online as vendors keep closing down accounts, saying they violated terms of service by buying in bulk.
Activating an eSIM requires a relatively new smartphone model and updated software, a tall order for Gazans preoccupied with securing access to food and clean water.
Another hurdle, and something of a mystery, is the fact that most of the eSIMs only seem to work at night.
"We have no idea why and we can't find an explanation for it," she said.
Even before the war, telecoms services in Gaza were fragile.
A World Bank report earlier this year said the enclave was the only place in the world relying on "obsolete" 2G technology and had no mobile broadband coverage.
By Feb, the enclave's largest telecoms provider, Paltel, had reported over 10 collapses in service provision since Oct 7.
Despite the battles between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters, telecoms engineers have been working to restore services, with reports of several being killed while trying to fix damaged infrastructure.
Hani Alami, who heads East Jerusalem-based Internet service provider Coolnet, said one of his teams working in the centre of Gaza was hit in February during a suspected Israeli attack, with two engineers killed and one injured.
Alami said he had coordinated his team's movements with the Israeli army before they headed out.
"They gave us the green light to move from the first point, and while the vehicle was moving on its track, they bombed the vehicle."
The writers are from Reuters
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times