RAFAH, GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — As soon as Israel wages a war against the Gaza Strip, usually accompanied with a blackout, Gazans gather around radios to listen to local radio stations tracking the course of events, the radio broadcast becoming the first and main source of information.

Mohamed Abdel Razek from Rafah sees radio as his companion in times of war. “In addition to being a radio audience in times of peace, my family and I, just like all the residents of the Gaza Strip, rely on radio stations during war times to accurately keep track of the developments," he told Al-Monitor. "We live in constant wars. Radio stations are the only efficient means of information in light of power outages, to elicit news or deliver certain messages.”

Radio stations, be they private or governmental, started broadcasting in the Gaza Strip as of March 2000, when the Palestine Broadcasting Corp. started Voice of Palestine's second program (the first program is broadcasted from Ramallah in the West Bank). In 2002, Sawt al-Horreyah Radio was opened as the first private radio station.

The Palestinian Press and Publication Law of 1995 did not mention the conditions for granting licenses to open and establish private Palestinian radio stations. However, a government decision in 2004 regulated the licensing of radio, television, satellite and wireless stations. A tripartite committee was formed in accordance with the government decision by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the Ministry of Information and the Ministry of Interior, to develop a licensing mechanism for radio, television, satellite and wireless stations and regulate them by issuing licenses.