The Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology said that the number of severed Internet cables in the Mediterranean rose to six, according to an official statement from the Italian Telecom Company. These include three cables connecting Italy to the Middle East and one to Libya as well as to Malta. The Italian company indicated that the severed cables are sometimes 120 Km away from each other. Connection services between Southern Europe and Southeast Asia via the Mediterranean have been affected and they were unavailable by 70% in India, 75% in Pakistan and 60% in some Gulf countries. Many countries are rushing off to get additional international capacities, including Egypt. Citizens' complaints about the cut of the Internet have increased, while the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology announced in a statement that Egypt would restore the Internet by 85 by Sunday morning after it succeeded using alternative cables and given that e-mail services have returned to a good condition. Minister Tarek Kamel called on people to reduce the use of the web and to limit downloading as much as possible for the time being. The Central Bank of Egypt announced that it had not been affected by the cuts in the Internet services because it relies on the satellite, while officials at the Egyptian Stock Exchange said the Bourse would be partly affected by the crisis, particularly with regard to clients who rely on e-mails to sell and purchase orders. Banking sources expected branches of foreign banks to be negatively affected by the Internet problem, while Amr Moussa, expert in the risks connected to information technology and telecommunications, said that the fact that Israel was not affected by the severing of the Internet cables raises more than one question about its role in this crisis. He said that the maritime cables serving Israel enjoy special immunity and Israel usually uses one of the cables that pass through Turkey to Europe and then to the United States.
