Wi-Fi Apps In Times Of War: 'I Wouldn’t Be Exaggerating If I Said That Whatsapp Can Be Life-Saving'
Wi-Fi Apps In Times Of War: 'I Wouldn’t Be Exaggerating If I Said That Whatsapp Can Be Life-Saving'
Wi-Fi Apps In Times Of War: 'I Wouldn’t Be Exaggerating If I Said That Whatsapp Can Be Life-Saving' In May, This American Life — a weekly public radio program and podcast — correspondent Chana Joff-Walt checked in with Yousef Hammash, a humanitarian aid worker from Gaza who fled to Egypt in 2024 with his wife, mother, and children. His four sisters and their extended families hoped to join them soon after. Then the blockades tightened. Since that time, almost no one has been able to leave Gaza. Now Hammash clings to his last refuge of communication: the family’s WhatsApp group chat. “Sometimes it's jokes,” Hammash said. “Sometimes they're crying. It depends. [They send] voice, text, photos, everything.” Joff-Walt observed that leaving Gaza made Hammash “the newest member of a well-established club.” “There are about 5 million Palestinians living inside the West Bank in Gaza,” Joff-Walt reported. “And the rest, about 9 million Palestinians, live all over the world — peop…