- Elon Musk will travel to Israel to view the damage caused by Hamas attacks.
- Musk previously angered Israeli officials when he said he would offer Starlink in Gaza.
Elon Musk plans to visit Israel on Monday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s office confirmed to Business Insider.
Israeli news channel N12 previously reported that Musk, the world’s richest man, will tour the Gaza Strip – an area about 4 miles from the Gaza border. Musk is also scheduled to meet with Herzog and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Gaza envelope took the brunt of Hamas attacks on October 7. Those attacks killed about 1,200 people and took about 240 hostage, triggering a scorched-earth response from Israel that killed more than 14,000 people in Gaza, the vast majority of them women and children.
Musk previously met with Netanyahu in California in September, where the two discussed anti-Semitism on X, Musk’s social media platform formerly known as Twitter, the Associated Press reported reported.
A post by Musk on X earlier this month in which he called an anti-Semitic post “the actual truth” received widespread attention Setback. The The White House condemned it as a “vile promotion of anti-Semitic and racist hatred”.
Musk angered Israeli officials in October when he said he planned to offer Starlink Internet access for Palestinians in Gaza after Israel cut off all communications in the Gaza Strip as part of its retaliatory invasion.
Gaza is a small piece of land about the size of Philadelphia and home to about 2 million Palestinians. Access to and from the Gaza Strip has long been controlled by the militaries of Israel and Egypt, both of which are hostile to the Palestinians. Israel and Egypt have also maintained a blockade against Gaza for years and control all incoming and outgoing goods.
Musk has repeatedly made forays into international conflicts its Starlink satellite network.
A Musk biographer said the CEO blocked Starlink access in Crimea to prevent Ukraine from attacking Russian occupation forces with drones. The move came after Musk spoke with Russian officials who expressed fears that such an attack could lead to a nuclear response.
The biographer, Journalist Walter Isaacson said the militarization of Starlink made Musk uncomfortable.
“How am I doing in this war?” According to an excerpt from the book, Musk asked Isaacson during an interview. “Starlink was not intended to be involved in wars. It was about people being able to watch Netflix and relax and get online for school and do good, peaceful things, not drone strikes.”
