Jonah

Overview

Jonah is a submarine cable system spanning 2,297 km across the eastern Mediterranean, connecting Israel and Italy. The system serves the corridor between the Levantine coast and the southern Italian peninsula, providing a direct link between two distinct ends of the Mediterranean basin.

Route and Landings

In Israel, the cable lands at Tel Aviv. In Italy, the cable lands at Bari, on the Adriatic coast of the southern peninsula.

Ownership and Operators

Jonah is owned solely by Bezeq International Ltd., the international telecommunications subsidiary of the Bezeq Group, Israel's principal telecommunications provider. As the sole owner, Bezeq International operates the system independently rather than through a shared consortium arrangement.

Technical Profile

No fiber pair count, capacity, supplier, or specific technology details are available for the Jonah cable system.

Status and Timeline

Jonah entered service in 2012 and has now been operational for approximately 14 years. The system is currently in service.

Regional Context

The Israel–Italy corridor is served by several submarine systems of varying scale. Jonah, at 2,297 km, is longer than 61% of the other cables touching the same countries, placing it in the mid-to-upper range for this corridor by length. Longer systems sharing this corridor include the MedNautilus Submarine System, IMEWE, the Middle East North Africa Cable System, Asia Africa Europe-1, and 2Africa, the last two of which are intercontinental systems that extend well beyond the Mediterranean. The Medusa Submarine Cable System, currently planned for 2026, will also serve portions of this corridor. Jonah, by contrast, is a dedicated point-to-point link between Tel Aviv and Bari without the branching or extended reach of those larger systems. Measured over the last 60 days across 88 ping tests, the cable records an average round-trip latency of 79.4 ms, with a best observed value of 60.0 ms.

Strategic Role

By connecting Tel Aviv directly to Bari, Jonah provides a dedicated Mediterranean crossing between Israel and Italy. Israel has six submarine cables landing across four points, and Jonah represents one of the country's direct links toward Europe. Italy, with 23 cables landing across 49 points, serves as one of the Mediterranean's most connected landing hubs, and Jonah's Bari terminus adds to the concentration of connectivity on the Italian Adriatic coast. The cable enables direct bilateral data exchange between the two countries without reliance on shared or branching infrastructure.